God is good. God is love. God is sovereign.
I love a good mix of upbeat and contemplative worship songs on Sunday mornings. It lets me be joyful and praise God for all that he is, but also lets me mourn how far we often stray from the path God intends for us. This morning, I didn't feel like playing the upbeat songs, though.
It's hard to sing "hallelujah" when your city is still reeling from a mass shooting less than a week ago. It's hard to sing about how "if our God is for us, what can stand against?" when there is an ongoing terrorist attack in a country you love dearly. It feels like I'm singing something when all evidence points to the opposite.
At one point in the Hunger Games trilogy, the main character, Katniss, goes through a time when there is so much chaos around her, she starts to forget what is true and what is her imagination. When she starts to lose sight of what's real, she goes back to the basics and reminds herself of what she knows is true: "My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games." There is turmoil all around her and she doesn't know who to trust, but she can remind herself of who she is.
There is turmoil around us in this world. There are shootings every day, terrorist attacks, broken families, and broken lives. It's hard to know who to trust, and it's hard to remember that there's still good in the world. It's days like these that I need to go back to the basics and remind myself of what I know is true: God is good. God is love. God is sovereign. I have seen God pull a phoenix from the ashes of a broken life, and I have seen God use terrible situations as opportunities to show how great he is. And God can use even something as awful as a terrorist attack to create something beautiful. It's just hard to remember when the headlines cry about death and destruction.
So, even when it doesn't feel real, I remind myself of what I know to be true: God is good. God is love. God is sovereign.
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