Lauren Chandler had good reason to thank God. \u201cMost of my life was pretty charmed,\u201d she says. \u201cI grew up in a home where my parents loved Jesus and each other, loved my brother and me. My life had a natural flow where things just kind of worked out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1999, Lauren married Matt Chandler, a passionate young preacher who would become lead pastor of one of the fastest-growing churches in America, The Village Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The willowy, blue-eyed blonde would be a Dove-nominated singer-songwriter and an in-demand speaker at dating and marriage conferences. She and Matt had two beautiful children, and she was pregnant with their third.<\/p>\n
Then she suffered a miscarriage. And another one after that. Lauren\u2019s world was crashing in on her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had always thought, Things will just work out for me because I trust God,\u201d Lauren admits. \u201cBut this was very painful. This wasn\u2019t supposed to happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she became pregnant after the second miscarriage, Lauren found herself filled with fear, not knowing then that she would carry the child full term. \u201cI was afraid the same thing would happen,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the Lord just confronted my fear. He showed me I believed God is good because He blessed me instead of believing God is good no matter what — that He loves me and will do good for me no matter how things might appear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to be thankful in difficult times if we equate easy times with God\u2019s blessing. In a book she wrote about her experiences she mines Psalm 107 for life-saving truths about God\u2019s covenant-keeping love — an anchor strong enough to hold through life\u2019s worst storms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have this confidence in God, whose love never changes,\u201d Lauren says. \u201cWe may think, How can this be good? Yet, we can cry out to God, \u2018I don\u2019t understand this, but I want to trust You. No matter what is going on, I am going to trust that You are good, that whatever You bring into my life is something that ultimately will be for my good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When people put their trust in a false anchor — like thinking they can work out their own problems — those anchors invariably give way, Lauren says. But when people realize God\u2019s steadfast love is an anchor that will hold fast in any storm, it gives them a deep peace and confidence that allows them to thank God even in the hardest times.<\/p>\n
Learning that lesson from the miscarriages was crucial for Lauren because she and Matt were about to face an even more severe trial.<\/p>\n
I still will trust You<\/p>\n
On Thanksgiving morning 2009, a seizure threw 35-year-old Matt to the floor. Tests at Baylor University Medical Center showed a mass in his brain\u2019s right frontal lobe. The seven-hour surgery to remove the malignant tumor was followed by an arduous course of radiation and high-dose chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
Even though most patients with that kind of cancer aren\u2019t likely to live long, Matt\u2019s scans are still coming back clean — no sign of cancer in his body seven years later.<\/p>\n
Lauren\u2019s heart overflows with gratitude for that gift, but she is careful not to take it for granted. \u201cEvery time Matt gets into the MRI machine, I say, \u2018Lord, You have shown me Your goodness no matter what, and I trust You. I know we do not deserve positive results, but You have been so kind to give that,\u2019\u201d Lauren recounts.<\/p>\n
Living with an attitude of gratitude isn\u2019t automatic, however. One thing that keeps Lauren from forgetting God\u2019s grace is living in relationship with Christians who bear one another\u2019s burdens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to step in with them, caring about and praying for them,\u201d she says. \u201cComing alongside them in their struggle helps me be grateful, not because I pity them, but because I remember how God has been faithful to me and how He continues to be faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers the example of the three Israelites who refused to worship the Babylonian king even when he threatened to throw them into a blazing furnace. Faced with unimaginable pain, the men told the king: \u201cIf the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire…. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up\u201d (Daniel 3:17-18).<\/p>\n
As her husband is drawn out of the MRI machine, Lauren continues her prayer: \u201cGod, I believe You will deliver us, but even if You don\u2019t, even if the results of this MRI are not what we hoped and prayed for, You are still good, and I still will trust You.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right before Matt\u2019s cancer diagnosis, God took Lauren to the book of Job and highlighted for her that when Satan wanted to afflict God\u2019s servant, he had to get the Lord\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt showed me that anything the enemy could do in my life was simply him being a pawn in God\u2019s hand,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI realized God would use for my good whatever the enemy meant for evil. It taught me we can see God\u2019s hand in hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when good things are happening to us, pride can blind us to the opportunity to thank God, Lauren adds. \u201cWe don\u2019t see them as graces in our lives. We think we did it,\u201d she admits. \u201cWe want to be the ones who are strong, who have the answers, who can do everything — when really we are needy. And it\u2019s a beautiful thing to be needy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In good times or bad, followers of Christ can live in thankfulness by letting Scripture remind us of God\u2019s steadfast love, Lauren encourages. \u201cGod is faithful in the trial, and He is faithful in the peace times,\u201d she says. \u201cLord, help me remember that You are good, that there are so many things in my life to be grateful for — even things that seem inconvenient and frustrating and disappointing. Even in those things, Lord, help me be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lauren Chandler had good reason to thank God. \u201cMost of my life was pretty charmed,\u201d she says. \u201cI grew up in a home where my parents loved Jesus and each other, loved my brother and me. My life had a natural flow where things just kind of worked out for me.\u201d In 1999, Lauren married […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1668,2782,1824,1427,1127,104,942,256,2783,41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}