Where is your God?

When everything seems to be going wrong, when it’s so easy to look and think, where is God in all this? That’s the time to remember that He is the Good Father, and we are the children, and we can trust Him.

Trusting Dad

My daughter got a splinter the other day. I’m not sure what your experiences have been with nine-year-old girls and splinters, but mine involve a lot of tears and emotion and fear, usually about the removal of the splinter and not the splinter itself. This particular splinter was very large, and the tip broke off deep under the skin. Tweezers were not the answer.

When it became clear that the normal methods of removal weren’t going to cut it, I calmly pulled out a little pocket knife and unfolded the blade. By her reaction, I think my daughter may have thought I was going to cut her foot off with it. She shrank back and pulled her foot away and began sobbing. I understood. You don’t generally approach your body willingly with a blade. There may even be some of you reading this who are just as put off by the pocket knife methodology as she was. It’s not a pleasant thought, and it is understandably scary.

What I had to get my daughter to understand was that the splinter couldn’t stay in her foot. It could get infected. Infection could make things a lot worse. I also had to get her to understand that the little bit of pain now was going to prevent a whole lot of pain later. Most predominantly, I had to get her to understand that I knew how to use a pocket knife to remove a splinter without causing excruciating pain or irreparable damage.

But here’s the thing: you can hardly get a nine-year-old to logically think through something when they have a clear mind; it’s near impossible to get them to logically think through something when they’re overcome with fear. I couldn’t argue my way to understanding on this. I couldn’t show her the facts and get her to submit to the clear rational course of action. So, what did I do?

I asked my daughter if she trusted me. That’s it.

And she said she did.

And then I told her that if she trusted me, she needed to let me do what I think is best.

And she did. With tears in her eyes, and her arms wrapped extremely tightly around a stuffed animal, she let me do what I needed to do.

A few minutes later, we had a giant splinter on the table, and a foot that didn’t even need a band-aid, and a smiling daughter with a popsicle in her hand. What a beautiful resolution!

Trusting God

I’m always amazed at the parallels between parenting and following God.

How often do we have seasons of life where we see something that scares us, we feel pain, we experience emotional turmoil, and we just don’t know what to do? My daughter saw a knife, felt physical pain, experienced emotional anxiety and fear, yet had the option in front of her to trust her dad to take care of the problem. And we have the option in front of us to trust our Heavenly Father, even (and especially) when everything seems crazy around us.

Psalm 42:9-11 says:
I will say to my God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?
My adversaries taunt me,
as if crushing my bones,
while all day long they say to me,
“Where is your God?”
Why, my soul, are you dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.

When everything seems to be going wrong, when it’s so easy to look and think, where is God in all this? That’s the time to remember that He is the Good Father, and we are the children, and we can trust Him.

Where is your God?

I love that the verse doesn’t negate that we will feel dejected, that we will feel turmoil. That’s a very real part of life. But it gives us some direction – “Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.” It might hurt, but we still put our hope in God. It might seem dark, but we still praise Him.

He is trustworthy. He is good. He is our savior. He is our God.

People may say, “Where is your God?” You may think to yourself, “Where is God in all this?” And your real answer may be, “I don’t really know.” But just like my daughter could trust me even when she couldn’t see what I could see, we can trust God even when we can’t see what He does.

Where is your God? He’s at work, in you and all around you. Trust Him.