Even If…
The year 2024, for the Tyson family, wasn’t the best of years. It was a year of stress – financial stress, emotional stress, physical stress. It’s been a year of heartbreak and sorrow where some relationships are concerned. It’s been a season of dealing with health scares and, for me, learning to manage some chronic issues (while losing 25 pounds in the process – a terrific weight loss plan that I will never, ever recommend to anyone! 😂). Add to that a “little” emergency surgery for our daughter at the beginning of her junior year, and the subsequent medical costs, and you have yourself a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” year.
What do you do when you can’t celebrate the past year with everyone else? What do you do when you don’t have your own highlight reel of good times to share? What do you do in a year you’ve simply survived? You turn to the God of Comfort, the God of Peace, the God of Provision and put every single burden in His Hands. And you do it every moment of every day.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
It’s been a rough year. There have been no miraculous rescues. We have had to slog through each difficulty the long, narrow way. But, as I’ve dialogued with The Father through the year, I have experienced incredible amounts of peace. A peace that has transcended the circumstances we’ve been in. And, in the process, the Lord has been slowly changing my perspective. I have internalized the truth of His goodness, not just when life is smooth, but EVEN IF…
Even if I have a life-threatening illness (and that was a distinct possibility this year), He is STILL GOOD.
Even if relationships are fractured beyond human hope of repair, He is STILL GOOD.
Even if I have days of chronic pain and fatigue, He is STILL GOOD.
Even if my children face pain and difficulty and stress of their own, He is STILL GOOD.
Even if we face financial hardship and uncertainty, He is STILL GOOD.
And He has sent so many reminders of His Goodness, especially this Christmas season.
As my family has celebrated the advent of Christ’s birth, and contemplated all that He gave up to take on human form for us, I have seen so much of this sacrifice through new eyes. It would have been enough if He had just come to die for us, far MORE than enough. But He came as a baby, taking a slow, long, arduous path to the Cross. And He did that to experience the human condition WITH US. In one of our advent readings this December, we read Paul’s poem about Christ in Philippians 2:
“Being in the form of God
He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
But Himself He emptied
The form of a servant He took on
Like other men He was born,
And in the appearance of a human He was found,
Humbling Himself,
by becoming obedient to the point of death
Death by the cross!”
I choked up as we read those words. He chose to be human. He chose to be hungry, and cold, and to know loneliness and heartbreak. He chose to feel pain and loss and fear. He chose to experience everything we face… because He loves us. Nothing any of us has endured this year is outside of our Savior’s experience. Nothing is outside of His scope. And there is also nothing outside of His power to redeem and restore and make whole. HE IS STILL GOOD.
I face this new year of 2025 with a newfound uncertainty in our circumstances. Life changes in the blink of an eye. Most of what we take for granted – health, financial security, relationships – can be taken without warning. And there are still so many “even if’s” weighing on us in the year ahead. But He is STILL GOOD. He gave up everything that made Him God to come to earth as that baby two millennia ago – to live with us and then die for us. And if He would do that, for me, I can trust Him with the rest. [JT]
