And we have thanked and praised Him for His always-good love as the headache that typically becomes a migraine fades away. I have also prayed against a coming migraine and watched, feeling helpless, as Karen still gets a migraine. And yet, while she is in pain, we have hurdled the disappointment and thanked and praised our Father for His always-good love.

We have trusted our Father in our finances, risking everything to start a company. Karen and I watched God come through miraculously giving us favor and increase. As the company prospered, we thanked and praised our Father for His always-good love.

We have trusted our Father completely in our finances, risking everything and losing the company. Karen and I have hurdled the disappointment of a failed business and substantial debt. And as we wondered how to pay the mounting bills, we thanked and praised Him for His always-good love.

We have prayed “Lord protect this pregnancy and our child” when a heartbeat couldn’t be found. We celebrated days later in the doctor’s office when life was discovered and again when our first daughter Madeleine was handed into the thankful waiting arms of a tearfully joyful new mother and father.

We have also prayed “Lord protect our child and this pregnancy” when complications became obvious. And weeks later we stood in the doctor’s office, grief in our eyes, as the devastating news was gently broken. On this journey of faith, we are learning, even in the midst of heartache, to trust in our Dad’s always-good love.

We are becoming convinced that His love is perfect, always good. We made a decision years ago that has empowered this conviction, even in the midst of heartache, disappointment, and death – God gets all the credit for every good thing in our lives and none of the blame when things go wrong.

This foundational thought has freed and empowered us to trust Him; it has released grace to hurdle heartbreaking disappointment. It has led us into a deep friendship with Father God. This thought has been transformative; it has renewed our minds. In every circumstance of life, every need, every disappointment, we are learning that we can choose to see His always-good love for us. And when we can’t see it, we can choose to believe until we can.

When we measure our Fathers good love by our interpretation of a need met, we will eventually be forced to re-define His good love. God is love and He is always good – period. The moment His goodness must be re-defined, He is no longer always good. If we define His love by a need met, then if at some point the need appears to go unmet, we set ourselves up for a crisis of faith.

It’s about faith. And faith believes when there is no evidence. Faith is about trust. Faith believes that He loves us and His love is perfect – always good. It’s our trust in our Fathers always-good love that empowers us to hurdle pain, loss, disappointment and even death – to still believe.

Faith believes His love is always good. Faith believes we exist to know and experience His always-good love. And this faith sets us up to know Him more and grow sure. Until we are “convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39