Dinah Kay

I had a rough morning. A shock to the system. A bit of bad news that jolted me. Right as I had pulled up to my son’s school. It was the last day of school. And I was supposed to speak. About faithfulness. To a room of fifty, fresh-faced, summer-excited kiddos. All looking to me to tell them how God good is.

And I felt like I had been sucker-punched. “God, what are you doing? Do you not see what’s happening here?” Questions swirled in my brain.

I felt like I had been sucker-punched.

So, I’m parked. I read the text again. Still the punch to the gut. I take a deep breath. And I walk in the doors. The mood is light and happy. I chit-chat with his teachers. All excited. Ready for summer. Two worship songs and a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday, for all the summer birthday kiddos. There I am. Fifty pairs of eyes trained on me. 

So, I tell them about what I had prepared weeks previous. What God laid on my heart when I prayed about what to say. In short… this is what I said.

Lamentations 3:22-23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

    great is your faithfulness.

To be faithful means to be FULL of faith. Faith means that we have complete trust or confidence in God.

Then, I had a volunteer help me. I put a blindfold on him and had him follow my directions. 

Two steps forward.

One step back.

One step to the right.

Two steps to the left.

You get the idea.

Sort of like Simon says. But he couldn’t see. Then when he was lined up perfectly with a chair directly behind him, I told him, “okay now, sit down.” And he did. He trusted a chair would be there, even though he couldn’t see one.

Then, I told the kids. That’s what faith is like. Sometimes, you can’t see what God is doing. But if you trust Him, He will always protect and take care of us.

Phew! How much did I need to hear that… right in that moment. That God KNEW I would need that right then. And planned it WEEKS in advance, amazes me.

Then, a couple more worship songs and watching my son play with a younger classmate, I was ready to head out.

The moment, I walked into the entryway, one of my pastors came walking in. The same one who had prayed for me a few weeks prior. He knew the issue I was facing and would understand the weight of the news I received. I mentioned it briefly to him and he said he would pray.

Again… how God orchestrated that EXACT moment for a chance encounter for a brief moment of encouragement is beyond me. I am just so blessed that God knew how much I would need to hear the message… to have a brief moment of encouragement.

But wait… there’s more.

Weeks ago… one of my kitchen chairs broke. Ugh. One more thing to pay for and fix. I ended up finding a beautiful, hand painted set of kitchen chairs online for ridiculously cheap. The chairs even have flowers on them. If you know me, you know how much I dig that.

Guess what folks… they were hand delivered to me. That same day. At my son’s end of year picnic. I got home later. Put them in my kitchen and it dawned on me. They are my “chairs of faith.” Like the chair I had the student sit in earlier that same day. A reminder of how good God is, even when I can’t see what He’s doing.

One of the last things I told the kiddos, was to remember, “the chair and the blindfold.” When you can’t see what God is doing. Remember.

And here I had a permanent reminder of what I’d just told them. Every time I sit in that chair, I have the opportunity to think about how God will show up for me, even when I have no clue what He’s up to.

How good God is to give me this encouragement and support when I need it the most. I feel overwhelmed and blessed by His goodness.

I don’t have an answer. I don’t know how this will all work out. But I do know that his love never ends.

Back to Lamentations. Did you know that when the Bible says, “steadfast love,” it can also mean “mercy?”… God is repeating himself so much in these verses to help us understand that He really means this. 

Almost like He’s saying, the never ending [or unchanging] love of the LORD never ends.

Hmmm… that’s an idea. Maybe every time I sit in one of those chairs, I should say that… “the steadfast love of the LORD never ends.” Let that be a reminder to me, and to you, and to all of us… of just how good God is.

And that is why, I count it all joy.