Purposed: Nothing Is Wasted

Grief can play such destructive tricks on your mind. There were moments that I really thought I made up everything about my pregnancy—but knowing that Gwen is real, heaven is real, and I will really go there because of what Christ did for me was an anchor to my wild thoughts and a balm to my grieving heart.

What is the big question that we ask ourselves, again and again? “Why? Why did this happen? Why me? Why my baby and my family?” While these are not unspiritual questions to ask, the Bible doesn’t always reveal the “why’s” of God. But, it does reveal His character and the assurance of His Spirit. So, when when we are plagued by wondering why, we can have some confidence about who God is and what He promises He will do.

God’s purpose—His objective or goal—is to give purpose—reason, meaning, and value—to our loss, for the sake of His glory and our eternal good.

Imagine that you are in a pottery studio, watching a potter work at a wheel. He’s been patiently fashioning a vase, tall, slender, and graceful. But suddenly the walls cave in on the vase. It’s marred. Now the potter has a choice. Will he give up? Will he leave this unfinished clay as it is? Will he throw it out? Or will he mercifully go about the hard work of reshaping it into something beautiful?

I believe this is what our story is like. Our lives were being molded when tragedy struck. But now what? What will happen to us? How will God respond to our brokenness?

I want us to spend some time in Romans 8. Many of you probably know the verse: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Often people will interpret that verse in one of two ways:

• If you’re a Christian, only good things happen for you.
• God intentionally plans for horrible things to happen to us so that some spiritual good will result.

Why are those two conclusions wrong?

The first misinterpretation—that only good things will happen for Christians—is totally faulty. God does not promise us health, or wealth, or prosperous living. That’s not a given if you’re a Christian. It’s not a mark of your faith or maturity if you experience hardship. We’ll see why in just a moment.

The second—that God intentionally devises evil circumstances—well that’s not consistent with anything the Bible teaches. James 1 says that God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does He tempt anyone. Habakkuk tells us that God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil.

So what does Romans 8:28 mean? What does it mean that all things work together? What is the good that is results, and who are the called?

Lets go to Romans 8:20:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Paul is saying something really profound here—because of sin, everything in the created world experiences brokenness, decay, and death. Everything is groaning under the weight of the effects of sin. And we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan too. As I believer, I have the actual Spirit of the living God abiding in me. I am a Christian, faithfully following the Lord. But I am not exempt from the suffering. And neither are you.

Now let’s go to verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Here’s the contrast —

We know that we are suffering. We know that we’re in pain—broken, experiencing things that are too heavy and sad for us. We know that.

But we don’t know how to pray. We don’t know what to ask for. We don’t know the will of God the way the Spirit of God does. So the Holy Spirit does it for us. He carries our hearts to the throne of God, and asks the things that He knows God will answer.

Now look at verse 28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”

There’s that “we know” again. We know we’re suffering; we don’t know how to pray, but we know that God can cause goodness and beauty to come out of the most broken circumstances.

What is the good that God can bring out? Believe me when I tell you that I quoted this verse back to God over and over when I missed Gwendolyn so much it hurt to breathe. I would cry to Him, “What is the good? I don’t see any good, God. How can losing her be good?”

And its not that losing Gwendolyn was good. It wasn’t. Death is not a good thing. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Death is the last enemy, and will not go away until Christ returns.

Romans 8 is not saying that everything that happens to us is good. It’s saying that in Christ, nothing is wasted.

God will draw out; He will create. He will make good come out everything that happens in the lives of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

This article was originally published on the blog on May 4, 2015

---

Erin Cushman is the founder of Hope Mommies. She is married to Blair and has four children: Gwendolyn, who has been with Jesus since October 20, 2010, Malacai, who is three, Gemma, born in June 2015, and Baby Cush. She loves photography, gardening, cooking, reading, playing with her children, and especially loves when all those things combine.

Are you a writer who would like to join the blog team? Learn more and apply here.

---

---