We Can Always Trust in God’s Good Plan

Finding Hope in the Middle of Hard Seasons

By Crista Moriah Simonowich

Are you puzzled by the way your life is unfolding? Is this season uncomfortable?

I can relate to these feelings!

On Good Friday last year, I was seated in the conservatory of a local spot, drinking a half-sweet coffee to intentionally mark the bitterness of the Cross.

My mom had gifted me Loved to Life, a Lenten devotional written by Ann Voskamp. Despite my scarce reading in the weeks leading up to this particular weekend, I skipped ahead to the portion covering the day of Passion—highlighting and annotating amidst the sound of fountains and birds.

God writes challenges as part of our narrative—and Jesus’s life was no exception. Maybe you’re wondering how your story parallels such a moment in history. Would you pause and ponder the sacredness of the Crucifixion with me today?

What is a Good Plan?

Ironically, the brutality, death, and burial all those Fridays ago really made way for the most beautiful and good plan ever accomplished.

Isaiah 53:10 declares it so: “But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands” (NLT).

This sheds a unique light on our thought process—and on our idea of goodness. I don’t know about you, but my definition of an acceptable plan is usually much, much different than what heavenly wisdom orchestrates.

Does “good” to you typically exclude the grittiness of struggle, heartbreak, trials?