I Told You So . . .

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

  (Thomas O. Chisholm)

“I told you so.” That dreaded phrase, implying that the speaker was right. I was wrong. 

I had one of those surreal moments last week while attending the Dedication service for incoming freshmen at Moody Bible Institute. Standing in Torrey Gray Auditorium worshipping alongside those new students and their  parents, I belted out that old hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

The setting, the service, the students – they each played a part in instantaneously transporting me back twenty years. There I was, standing precisely where I’d stood so many times during my own Bible college days at Moody, hearing my Father speak to me in His gentle, quiet, ever-so-intimate whisper:

Great is My faithfulness . . . there is no shadow of turning with Me. I change not. My compassions, they fail not. As I have been, I forever will be.

Basically a divine, “I told you so.” And, He most certainly had told me these things about Himself those twenty years back, right when I needed to hear them and struggled to believe them most. I entered Moody in a messed up state. Angry and confused. Wounded. Doubting. Thus began the fight of my spiritual life. I can identify with Jacob’s wrestling match with the Almighty.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. For me, Moody is most accurately described as the crucible God used to burn off my paralyzing fears while searing His perfect love into the very depths of my heart.

Agonizing hours in the prayer closets on the second floor of Culbertson Hall, left me emotionally empty and even physically weak, but, like Jacob, I wasn’t about to let go until I knew Him. At first, it was just until I knew if there was a Him – a God who could be trusted.

During this process of refinement, He continually stated:

Great is My faithfulness . . . there is no shadow of turning with Me. I change not. My compassions, they fail not. As I have been, I forever will be.

Gradually, I began to believe . . . again. Yes, He is God and yes, He is still good. He doesn’t change. He will never fail. I can trust Him.

Slowly, though, I began to change and live out of these truths. When He confronted my fear of marriage and ordained a partnership with a fellow classmate and Godliest man I knew (and still know), I hesitantly, reluctantly obeyed. That was twenty years ago.

Those old Moody days were filled with faith lessons. Hebrews defines faith as, ” . . . the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Back then, I couldn’t see what He could see.  But last week, in that chapel service, I saw it all by looking backwards.

20 years of marriage to my best friend and favorite ministry partner

4 incredible children on earth and 1 in heaven waiting for us

1 daughter being dropped off to begin her own Moody adventure

It all adds up to this truth to which I can now boldly testify, not only by faith but also by sight – hindsight:

Great is His faithfulness. There is no shadow of turning with Him. He changes not. His compassions, they fail not. As He has been, He always will be!

Lord, let me live long enough to hear many more times Your, “I told you so!”