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Yet I am confident that I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.             Psalm 27:13-14

David wrote these words in Psalm 27. The first word jumps out at me – “yet”. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary. In spite of everything my eyes currently see, I am confident in the goodness of God. It’s not just head knowledge, but life experience that allows David to retain his confidence in God’s goodness. It is God’s nature, His character. He cannot be anything but good. He has a good heart, good intentions, good desires for you.

Does this mean that everything that happens to you will be good? Obviously not – this passage starts with “yet”. David had just described pleading with God while his enemies were threatening him. Our enemy always wants to harm us. But God desires to bless and bless and bless again. What He intends for you is not brokenness or pain. He intends good, healing, wholeness, restoration for you. This is His eternal plan from the beginning.

Our hurts happen because God gave humans free will, with which we accept or reject Him and His ways. He accepts our choices. Sometimes we’re hurt by our own choices. Sometimes we’re hurt as a result of others’ choices. Sometimes we’re hurt because we live in a world that’s under the curse of sin. While God accepts our choices that hurt ourselves and others, He does not desire for bad things to happen to us. In the midst of this cursed condition, God is actively, tirelessly, constantly working to restore all things, to make things right, to make something good out of what Satan intended would destroy us (John 5:17; Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:20; Jeremiah 29:11).

And so we have no choice but to wait. Wait for God to finish His work, accomplish His purposes. Wait for the evidence that proves our trust was not misplaced. What is this condition except one of hope?

Hope is a seed. A possibility. A desire not yet realized. In order for anything to come from hope, it must be planted. It disappears into the darkness. Mysterious things happen there, beneath what we can see. But all along, the seed is doing its miraculous dying, transforming into something bigger than its original form.

We plant our hope in the soil of God’s marvelous love. We believe earnestly, desperately, against all the odds that by placing our hopes here, there is a chance, a possibility of attaining that which we long for.

What do we long for? Freedom from the curse of sin. Restoration to our position as God’s sons and daughters. Paul says, “Even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children… Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.” Romans 8:23-24

Like Paul, like David, like countless saints before, we are looking forward. We are waiting for something more. We are biding our time in confident hope for our good God to finish His good work.

We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world where everyone is right with God. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to live a pure and blameless life. And be at peace with God. And remember, the Lord is waiting so that people have time to be saved.                    2 Peter 3:13-15

“Meanwhile, all his disciples deserted him and ran away.”      Mark 14:50

“That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.”      John 20:19

Blindsided. That’s how the disciples must have felt. They entered Jerusalem on Sunday to the roar of the crowd’s approval. By Friday all their expectations had been dashed, crushed under the weight of a cross. They had been in the shadow of greatness. Now they were just in the shadows.

We read the accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection with the benefit of hindsight. How silly of the disciples to be hiding! Jesus told them what was going to happen. They should have known that He would rise from the dead. Never mind that it had never happened before. Never mind that their world had just been turned upside down and they were still struggling to figure out which way was up.

Our everyday lives happen without the benefit of hindsight. Then some circumstance blindsides us. Suddenly we find ourselves living between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Our response is to hide in fear because we easily forget the promises of God.

It is hindsight that lets us look back more than 2000 years to the Cross, where we see that God keeps His promises. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He will not change. He will continue to act towards us from His goodness, His mercy, His love. This encourages us and propels us forward into the future.

The Cross is the proof in the pudding, the eternal evidence that God gave that He loves us and will do anything to rescue us and restore our relationship with Him. It is at the Cross that God invites us to walk by faith and not by sight. The grave looked pretty final and death looked pretty victorious. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Faith looks ahead, keeps waiting to see what more God has to reveal, what God’s power can do with a hopeless situation.

What got the disciples out of the locked room? The good news that the tomb was empty. What’s the remedy that will draw us out of fear and hiding? The same good news that drew the disciples out. The tomb is empty.  Whatever painful, blindsiding, world-altering circumstance you face, it’s an empty threat.  It’s not the end of your story. There’s more to come.