Saturday, I had a terrible mishap. I dropped my iPhone into a bucket of paint.

Yep, like a well thrown bean bag in a championship cornhole tournament… plop. Right in the hole.  Nothing but net.  I was painting Amanda’s room and having a pretty good day. She’s coming home for a full week in April after a very busy time of nursing in Richmond and I wanted things to look fresh for her.

I like painting; I’m pretty good at it.  Years ago, when I was a bi-vocational pastor I worked briefly for a house painter, and he showed me a few tips. And one of them is to have plenty of light.  So, in my preparation, I moved all the furniture to the center of the room including the bedroom lamp.  But I still wanted the benefit of maximum lighting, so in addition to my work lamps, I stretched the electric cord across to the nearest outlet.  This resulted in the cord being suspended off the ground a good 18 inches- the perfect trip line for lazy painter.  I should have just taken 5 minutes to go downstairs to my garage workbench and get an extension cord.

I made it through the trim and the first coat, gingerly stepping over the cord as I went.  But during the second coat, I backed into the cord and the lamp started to teeter.  I lunged for the lamp and caught it, but the force of my motion bumped the dresser that my iPhone was sitting on, and plop.  There you have it. I wish I would have let the $35 lamp fall and caught the several hundred-dollar iPhone.

At the time, I was listening to the Bible online. So, as the phone sank into its painty grave, I heard the garbled words, “These are the commands the LORD yerb Glob gaffe tb thu….”

I fished the phone out by its charging cord, set it in the roller tray and ran to get a dry rag.  By this time, Katelyn had heard the commotion and came running.  After she assessed the situation, rolled her eyes, and had a good laugh, she held out her hand and said, “Give me that!”

Several years ago, when I acquired the phone from the church, it came with an Otterbox case.  The Otterbox Defender series, to be exact, with triple-layer clamshell construction- “an inner shell, outer cover and touchscreen protector that is 7x as durable as what is required by the US military.” Frankly, I’ve never liked the case. It’s expensive, bulky, ugly, and completely counters the sleek design of the iPhone.  But I’m a believer now; it held!  The case is ruined but as Katelyn carefully disassembled it, the phone inside was safe and dry. It only needed a light wipe with a damp cloth to remove a slight haze of paint.  Unbelievable.  The first thing Katelyn did after rescuing my phone was to go onto Amazon and order me another Otterbox. Pam says I should write them with a testimonial.

As I sit here today, with my iPhone on my lap, in a brand new but still ugly Otterbox, the famous words of Isaiah 43 echo in my mind:

But now, this is what the LORD says, he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Isaiah 42:1-2

… And when you pass through the paint, it will not stain you.

When I reflect on the last 54 years, I can point to many examples of trials- times of deep water and hot flames, not in the literal sense, perhaps, but trials, nonetheless. How about you? And in those times of hardship and struggle, our heart often cries out, “where are you, God?”  And what we really mean, is “why are you letting this happen to me?” or “if you love me, you’d stop this from happening!” We unconsciously link God’s faithfulness and love to him keeping us out of trial and away from struggle. And when that doesn’t happen, we are disappointed or even disillusioned.  It feels like God has let us down. How can I trust a God who allows such hardship in my life?

But God doesn’t work that way.  Sure, we can all point to times when God graciously protected us from something.  But more often than not, he protects us through something.  And so the mark of God’s love is not that he takes us out of trials, but that he walks us through them.  When we come out the other side, we have a story of his provision and a testimony of his faithfulness to share with others.  Isn’t that what Isaiah is teaching?

We are in difficult times. No doubt about it. Nothing like our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, but still unprecedented.  But if we insist on believing that God will “deliver us”, meaning “exempt us”, we’re missing the heart of what it means to walk with God.  We will become resentful and untrusting, believing that God is holding out on us.  As Christians, though, we follow a God who suffered for our sins and we share in “the fellowship of his sufferings (Philippians 3:10).”  God rarely exempts us from hardship, but in that suffering, we have the rock-solid presence and protection of our eternally strong Savior.  And he will walk with us through any trial and be faithful to our very last breath.