If you had asked me this summer what was going on in my life I wouldn’t have had a real answer for you.

This year had some deeply painful events for me that God has walked through by my side. None of them blindsided Him, but most of them blindsided me. I faced consequences of some of my own decisions as well as consequences of other people’s brokenness. There were things that I looked at and wanted to scream at the unfairness. There were many days of a heavy heart and tears poured out in private to God as well as on shoulders of friends He placed intentionally in my life.

Through none of that would I have foreseen the circumstances I am now entering this fall.

I see good in my life.

Does it look the way I expected? Certainly not. I had mentally constructed plans and almost all of them were taken or changed. But I am looking at the opportunities God has provided me with and recognizing His abundant goodness in His plans.

I am living in an apartment with my best friend.

I have a job 5 minutes away that fills my heart with so much joy.

I am able to move my body once again.

I found a church 5 minutes away that I see God so clearly in.

I see God so clearly in my life currently and have felt Him so close.

In areas where my heart felt deeply broken He has brought healing.

The sweetness of relationship with God is not found in the things He provides. Rather, it is found in the relationship itself and the power of His love that meets us in all our most broken places. I want to be intentional in giving Him praise for the circumstances He has changed in my life, but I also know that He is a God who gives and takes away. If tomorrow He chooses to take away again, my hope is that my soul will continue to declare that He is good.