Learning to Trust GodSample

When something tragic happens, our grief begs us to rewrite the past. We replay moments, conversations, and decisions, trying to find the one thing that could have changed everything. We wonder, “What if I had said this?” or “If only I had done that.” We try to make sense of something that will never fully make sense on this side of eternity.

I know this because I’ve been there. My dad lost his life to his battle with addiction, and for a while, I lost myself in the weight of what if and if only.

Grief can easily blur into guilt after losing a loved one to addiction. We start to believe that their choices were somehow our fault and that our love wasn’t enough. But that isn’t true. No matter how fiercely we loved someone or how desperately we tried to help them, we were not in control. Only God has the power to heal, to restore, and to save.

It’s hard to accept that God didn’t save them in the way we hoped He would. It doesn’t make sense that a loving God would allow so much pain, or that healing didn’t come on this side of heaven.

But having faith doesn’t mean we’ll always understand — it means we choose to trust even when we don’t. God’s ways are higher than ours, and His timeline stretches far beyond what we can see. I may never know why my prayers weren’t answered the way I wanted, but I do know this: God never stopped loving my dad, and He never stopped loving me.

Prayer: God, I don’t always understand Your ways, but I choose to trust You. When I start to question why things happen, please remind me that You are still good.