Finding Goodness Within the Hardships of Life

I used to run wild within my life. When life felt too hard I either retreated inward, was filled with nostalgia for the past, or I longed for the future. I avoided challenges by running. I thought that by wishing away where I was and finding anything in this world to fulfill me that I would come out on the other side unscathed. But all I found was that I was empty inside. My tendency to both sail and avoid hardship only hurt me in the long run, and I dragged other people down with me. 

The song This Will End by The Oh Hellos says it well: 

“No, I am not afraid to die. It’s every breath that comes before. Heartache, I’ve heard, is part of life, and I have broken more and more.”

It wasn’t until well into my adult life that I realized that my lifestyle was only causing pain for myself and others. I was caught in a vicious cycle of wishing away my life for something better. But running wild never seemed to fix my longing for more; it only left me even more broken and wanting. I had learned the hard way that my challenges were meant to be lived. They were not something to escape from—they were opportunities to experience God more and to grow as a person. I found that there was purpose in my challenging circumstances, and I discovered a new longing: to find the goodness and purpose within the hardships of life.

Purpose In Hardship

We all will come across challenges in life; it’s simply part of the human experience. We will face hardships, obstacles, and heartaches. Our hearts will break time and time again, and sometimes, we’ll be the ones doing the breaking. We are not immune from hardship. But it’s how we handle the challenges of life that show our character and our depth of faith. 

It may not feel like it, but I believe that there is purpose in every hardship that we will encounter on our faith journey. Scripture points toward a God who keeps his promises, is above all things, and allows suffering if it brings him glory and shapes us into christlikeness. We see divine hope in words of Scripture teaching us that God has a plan for all things. He is intentional in His very trinitarian nature, His creation of us, and the story for all of humanity. 

Over thousands of years God kept his people Israel in mind. He allowed them to walk in wilderness, live in captivity, and wait for hundreds of years for their savior to arrive. Many of their struggles were due to their own disobedience and hunger for other gods, but God would not have allowed it if he did not think it would draw them closer to him and closer to glory. 

If God was intentional in these ways toward Israel, why don’t we believe that he is intentional in this way toward us? His goodness shines through His intention and love toward us. We may never see the reasons for hardship on this side of eternity, but we must hold onto hope that there is a purpose in our suffering. If there is no other reason I can see, I believe that it must be for my good and for God’s glory in some way, shape, or form. God can use anything for good.

Finding Goodness Within Hardship

So the question remains: How do we find goodness within hardship? And how do we embrace the trials in our lives so we can learn the lessons God is intending for us?

First, we hold onto hope that God works out of good intentions.

In God’s very character he is good, loving, and just. He is gracious toward us and is quick to forgive. While parts of Scripture portray God as angry or punishing, we have to remember that the things that anger him must anger us as well. God’s anger is justified. Of course God would be angry over the things that draw us away from him. He holds righteous anger over the evil forces in this world because they do not tell the truth about Him, His word, or about His people. 

From the beginning of time, God’s intentions toward humanity have always been good. But we have to remember as well that good does not mean a life without pain. Because there is sin in this world, there will be troubles. The enemy is actively trying to destroy what God has created and deemed beautiful. However, God being sovereign and powerful, our troubles can be used for goodness and beauty. We can still have a good life and one that is painful at times. It is not either, or. It’s both, and. Besides, how would we know true joy if we did not also know heartbreak?

Next, we remember the promises of Scripture.

Scripture points toward a God who keeps his promises. From Abraham, to Joseph, to Israel as a nation, God did what he said he would do. But when we look at these examples, we can see that each of them came with their own struggles and hardships.

Abraham had to wait many years before he had a child with his beloved wife. 

Joseph had to endure years of slavery and imprisonment before he saw the fruit of his difficult situation.

Israel walked in wilderness, lived in captivity, and waited years for the Messiah.

But God.

He always came through in the end, didn’t He? Then how true is it that He will come through for us today? It may not look like our timeline or by our agenda or by our idea of how things will go. But God will always keep his promise to us: He has the final say. The victory is already won.

Lastly, we trust God in our hardship.

I ultimately think that how we live out hardship is dependent not necessarily on our endurance or our faith, but on what we believe about God. Do we believe that God is good? Do we believe that He allows us to suffer for his glory? Or do we believe that God is not always good and he causes our suffering? Do we believe that everything happens for a reason even if we will never know the reason? Or do we think that everything in this life—including our struggles—serve no purpose and just happen by coincidence?

It’s easy for me to trust God in the midst of hardship because I believe that he allows me to suffer because he has a greater plan in mind. I believe that everything happens for a reason. Regardless of if that means I am naive or not, it gives me tremendous hope to live out my faith journey. Perhaps my naivety gives me this hope, but it is a strong hope in the goodness of life at that. We have to trust that a good God is at the center of all things if we want to live this life fully.