As a teen, I was inspired by the story of Jim Elliot and his fellow global workers who were killed in their efforts to bring the Gospel to those who had never heard about Jesus. Their commitment and courage was inspirational, but their story also showed me as a young teen that God doesn’t always keep His children from physical harm. This understanding of God being all-powerful but allowing bad things to happen was something I wrestled with in my teen years. As I got older, I started to experience my own tragedies. Through these experiences these questions kept coming back, “What does it look like to trust God for protection?” “How do I trust God for safety when He sometimes allows bad things to happen to myself and my family?”

This isn’t a new reality. We see in the Bible that God’s followers often suffered physical harm. Following Jesus doesn’t mean we get out of hard times. We know this. We teach this to others. We sit beside hurting people and comfort them with Bible verses as they experience the pain of this reality. But as I have experienced some of the deepest pain I have ever felt in the last couple years, the question resurfaces in my own heart, “How do I trust God in the midst of all this?”

So I write this as a work in progress who sometimes lacks faith and needs to remind herself of the truth of these words. We trust God to be who His Word says He is. We don’t trust God based on how a situation is going to turn out. Our trust is based on who He is and His promises. A promise that He will protect me from physical harm? No. It’s the promise that no matter what happens, He will be here with me and we will walk through it together. The promise that He is enough. Whatever comes my way, He will walk through it all with me until I see Him face to face. His strength will be enough. His love will be enough. His peace will be enough. And in Heaven, there will be no more pain and suffering and things will be as they were intended to be. But until the day that He decides for me to go home, I will trust Him to be enough for every situation that I encounter.