Trusting God's Goodness When Life Doesn't Go as Planned

Blog by the Unhurried Living Team

Gem Fadling opens episode 414 of the Unhurried Living Podcast with a question that most of us are too tired to ask out loud: how do I trust God when things aren't going the way I want? Trusting God's goodness does not require pretending the pain away. It means bringing an honest, open hand to a God who has already promised to hold what we cannot control.

Gem's conversation partner for this episode is Vivian Mabuni, an author and speaker who has walked through cancer, marriage conflict, and years of learning to notice God in the ordinary. Together they unpack what it actually looks like to live with open hands and a willing heart, rather than gripping tightly to a script we've written for our own lives. What follows is not a formula for feeling better fast. It is an honest look at what surrender costs, and what it makes possible.

What Does Christian Hope Look Like in the Middle of Suffering?

Christian hope rarely shows up as a sudden absence of pain. In this episode, Vivian Mabuni describes a season when her life was moving at full speed: three children in three schools, a marriage under strain, and then a diagnosis that stopped everything. Christian hope, as she describes it, did not erase the fear in that garage when her husband told her the biopsy results. It arrived quietly instead, in a single sunbeam breaking through rain clouds the moment her husband finished praying over her.

That image matters because it resists the idea that Christian hope is something we manufacture through willpower or positive thinking. Vivian's story shows Christian hope as something given, often in the smallest, most physical way, right at the point where a person has nothing left to offer God but honesty. Gem Fadling names this directly: everybody is carrying something right now, and Christian hope starts with permission to come to God as we are, not as we wish we were.

One small step worth taking today is naming, out loud or on paper, the one circumstance where hope feels hardest to find. Sit with it honestly before asking God to meet you there.

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How Do You Practice Trusting God in Hard Times?

Trusting God in hard times is rarely a single decision. Vivian Mabuni describes it as something she has to reup again and again, a phrase she borrows from her own spiritual history of being asked, at each new crossroads, "will you trust me?" Trusting God in hard times looked one way in her twenties, when the hardest surrender she could imagine was becoming a single librarian in an unglamorous car. It looked entirely different decades later, in a hospital gown.

What ties those two seasons together is the same posture: an open hand instead of a demand. Gem Fadling reflects that many of us default to telling God how our story should go, pouring out real requests but quietly expecting a particular outcome in return. Trusting God in hard times means letting that expectation loosen its grip, even while the pain of the situation remains completely real and unresolved.

A simple practice from this conversation: before your next prayer, try replacing one request with a single honest sentence, such as "not my will, but yours be done," and notice what shifts.

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Why Is God Always Good Even When Life Isn't Fair?

The claim that God is always good sounds simple until circumstances seem to argue otherwise. Vivian Mabuni traces this back to a lesson from a seminary professor: evaluate your circumstances in light of who God is, rather than deciding who God is based on your circumstances. God is always good, she says plainly, and he is never not good, even when a diagnosis, a strained marriage, or an unanswered prayer suggests a different story.

This is where the conversation turns to Hagar in Genesis 16, a woman who ran into the desert after being mistreated and unseen. God met her there, called her by name when no one else had, and Hagar became the first person in Scripture to give God a name of her own: El Roi, the God who sees me. Vivian connects this directly to her own cancer story and to a young man at a family wedding who found the courage to reconcile with an estranged brother after witnessing a small act of unconditional love. God is always good is not a slogan in this episode; it is a claim tested in a garage, in a hospital, and in a kitchen conversation about a text message.

Today's small step: read Genesis 16 slowly and ask where in your own life you might need reminding that you are seen.

What Does It Look Like to Live an Open-Handed, Surrendered Life?

Trusting God's goodness through surrender is the thread running under every story in this episode, and Vivian Mabuni gives it a memorable picture: a pie where every slice, not just one, belongs to God. Here is what that open-handed posture tends to include, based on this conversation.

1. Naming What You're Carrying

Practice: Acknowledge honestly what feels unresolved instead of minimizing it.

Why It Matters: Gem Fadling notes that pretending we're fine blocks the very hope we're seeking.

2. Evaluating Circumstances in Light of God

Practice: Ask what is true about God's character before asking why a hard thing is happening.

Why It Matters: This keeps God's goodness anchored to who he is, not to how the week is going.

3. Practicing Sabbath as a Tangible Shift

Practice: Set aside phones and screens for a defined period, as Vivian describes doing from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday.

Why It Matters: Sabbath interrupts the busyness many of us use to avoid sitting with pain.

4. Letting Surrender Be Ongoing

Practice: Expect God to bring you back to the same question of surrender at new seasons, not just once.

Why It Matters: Trusting God's goodness through surrender is a returning posture, not a one-time achievement.

There is nothing here that promises comfort will arrive quickly. But each practice offers a way to keep showing up honestly, which Vivian Mabuni and Gem Fadling both suggest is where trust actually grows.

A Steady Word for the Weary

Vivian Mabuni's story and Hagar's story both land on the same quiet claim: God sees, and God is good, even when the timeline makes no sense to us. Nothing in this conversation asks you to feel resolved today. It simply invites you to keep your hands open long enough to notice that you have never actually been carrying this alone.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I trust God when my life is falling apart?
A: Start by being honest about what feels broken rather than rushing to feel better. In this episode, Vivian Mabuni describes bringing real fear to God in a hospital garage, not a polished version of her faith, and finding that God met her exactly there.

Q: How do I keep hope when everything feels hopeless right now?
A: Hope in this conversation is described as something received in small, ordinary moments rather than manufactured through effort. Vivian Mabuni points to a single sunbeam after prayer as evidence that hope often arrives quietly, not dramatically.

Q: How do I stop trying to control everything and trust God?
A: Gem Fadling suggests replacing a specific demand with an honest, open request, such as asking God to show up rather than dictating how. Vivian Mabuni adds that surrender tends to return again and again at new crossroads, so expect to keep practicing it.

Q: Who is Vivian Mabuni?
A: Vivian Mabuni is an author and speaker featured on episode 414 of the Unhurried Living Podcast, where she discusses surrender, Sabbath, and trusting God's goodness through her own cancer journey.

Q: What does the name El Roi mean in the Bible?
A: El Roi means "the God who sees me." According to Genesis 16, Hagar gave God this name after he met her by name in the desert, making her the first person in Scripture to name God.