Rachel Whisman

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:71

“It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:26

“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lamentations 3:27

“It is good” is not the phrase I would have used to describe this past school year. If someone had asked me, “Hey, how is your year going?” Immediately, the answer is, “Yep, that’s going to be a no. Not a huge fan of this past school year.” It was hard, exhausting, and tiring. Every day felt like plowing through concrete. My team and I had more behaviors to manage than normal. It felt like we were playing “Whack-a-Mole.” We would get one under control, then someone else would pop off seconds later. The burnout was palpable, and weariness was steadfast. It felt more like drudgery than delight. Unexpected twists and turns met us on every corner, but by God’s grace, we survived and endured. 

Yet God says, “It is good for us.” The affliction, waiting on Him, and enduring is doing something. This year, it humbled me to take one day, or one hour at a time. To rely on the graces that he gave me that day to steward rather than tomorrows. The trials were not catching Him off guard or slipping through his fingers, but the very instrument he used to sharpen, refine, and smooth the rough edges of my soul to become more like him. He was answering my prayer that he would become more near and dear to me, but it was through his all-wise means that he did that.  

Year seven of teaching did not go as I had planned. Your year might not be going as you planned. There might be some trials that have popped up that you would rather whack away. Certain expectations have gone unmet by yourself or others, and the drop feels sickening. They are all in the Father’s hand, though, and that is good because He is good. We don’t fully understand now, but through faith, by his spirit, we trust in Him. It is good because his words become our solace when we turn to it and renew our hearts with the truth. It is good because it helps pry our grip from ourselves and onto his salvation, which grants us hope. It is good because we find our endurance and companionship in Christ in what He has already gone through, as we bear whatever yoke that is placed on us.

“Would you have your heart to rest nowhere but in the bosom of God? What better way can you imagine providence should take to accomplish your desire, than by pulling from under your head, that soft pillow of creature delights on which you rested before? And yet you fret at this, peevish child! How do you exercise your Father’s patience? If he delays to answer your prayers, you are ready to say he regards you not; if he does that which really answers the scope and main end of them, but not in the way you expected, you quarrel with Him for that: as if instead of answering, he were crossing all your hopes and aims; is this ingenuous? Is it not enough that God is so gracious to do what you desire, but you must be so impudent to expect he should do it in the way which you prescribed? 

-John Flavel, Keeping the Heart

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17