Music Monday: “If It Was Up to Me” by Ben Fuller (featuring Carrie Underwood)
By: Debbie Waltz
Have you ever wished that, if it were up to you, certain things in your life would look completely different?
Maybe you would choose a life without pain, struggles, disappointment, or unanswered prayers. Maybe you would ask God to fix the circumstances that keep you up at night and give you the life you always imagined you would have.
I know I have.
As I continue to deal with health issues, I’m learning that God doesn’t work the way we do. And while that can be difficult to accept, I’m beginning to understand that His priorities for my life may look very different from my own.
That’s one of the reasons the song “If It Were Up to Me” by Ben Fuller featuring Carrie Underwood has given me so much to reflect on. It brings me back to the truth that what I would choose for my life and what God is doing in my life may not always be the same.
What I love about this song is how honestly it speaks to our very human desire to take the easy road. If we had the choice, most of us would probably choose fewer struggles, fewer painful seasons, and a life that went according to our plans. We want God to fix things and make the hard stuff go away.
But the song also points us toward a deeper truth: if everything were always easy and life unfolded exactly as we wanted, we might miss opportunities to recognize our need for God’s grace.
God’s grace isn’t limited to rescuing us from difficult circumstances. His grace meets us in the middle of them, sustains us when we feel helpless, and reminds us that we don’t have to navigate life in our own strength.
And perhaps the bigger question isn’t just what I want God to change around me, but what He wants to change within me.
1. God’s Ways Are Higher Than Our Ways
Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV) reminds us that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways.
We often want God to change our circumstances. We pray for healing, relief, answers, and a smoother road ahead. We want Him to take away the things that hurt and give us a glimpse of what we hope our lives will become.
And there is nothing wrong with bringing those requests to Him. We can be honest with God about our struggles and ask Him for healing. But I’m beginning to learn that God is concerned with more than simply giving us the lives we think we want.
He is also concerned with who we are becoming.
Sometimes, we become so focused on asking God to change our circumstances that we overlook the work He may be doing in our hearts. He wants to shape our character, grow our faith, and teach us to become more like Jesus.
I don’t pretend to understand everything God is doing through my own health struggles. There are still things I wish were different. But I’m learning that I don’t have to understand all His ways to trust Him.
God may not always change our circumstances on our timeline, but we can trust Him to keep working in us through them.
2. Are Our Words Serving God or Ourselves?
This is something else I’ve been thinking about lately through my church book club. We are being challenged to look at the different ways our communication doesn’t always serve God but instead serves ourselves.
That is a humbling thing to consider.
Sometimes, we can become so convinced that we know God, understand His Word, or have the right answers that we forget to examine our own hearts. We may enter a conversation wanting to prove a point rather than understand another person. We may be more concerned with being right than with showing love.
Without realizing it, we can use our words to elevate ourselves instead of glorifying God.
But if God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours, shouldn’t that lead us to humility?
Knowing Scripture is important. Standing firm in our faith is important. But we must also be willing to listen, learn, and allow God to correct us. We need to consider whether our words reflect His character and whether the way we communicate draws people toward Him or pushes them away.
It’s easy to talk about God’s truth. It’s another thing to communicate that truth with grace, compassion, and love.
I’m learning that God isn’t just interested in what I believe. He is interested in how those beliefs shape the way I treat people.
Sometimes, the work God needs to do in our hearts begins with the words coming out of our mouths.
3. We Are God’s Ambassadors to a Hurting and Broken World
This brings me to 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV), which reminds us that we are Christ’s ambassadors, “as though God were making his appeal through us.”
Think about that for a moment. God calls us to represent Jesus to the people around us.
We live in a hurting and broken world. People are carrying burdens we may know nothing about. Some are struggling with grief, illness, loneliness, disappointment, or questions they are afraid to ask. Others are searching for hope and trying to make sense of their circumstances.
As Christians, we have an opportunity to point them toward Jesus.
But how we do that matters.
If we claim to represent Christ, our words and actions should reflect His heart. We cannot expect people to see His love in us if we are more focused on winning arguments, proving our knowledge, or making ourselves look right than on loving them well.
Being an ambassador for Christ doesn’t mean we have all the answers. It means we are willing to let Him continue working on us as He works through us.
It means approaching people with humility, extending grace, listening with compassion, and remembering that we are all in need of God’s mercy.
Perhaps our own struggles can help us become more compassionate toward others. When we experience uncertainty, we may better understand someone else’s fear. When we have to wait for answers, we may become more patient with someone who is still searching. When we recognize our own need for grace, we may become more willing to extend it.
God isn’t asking us to be perfect people. He is calling us to faithfully represent a perfect Savior.
4. Sometimes Our Weakest Moments Reveal God’s Strength
Isn’t it often in our weakest moments that we become most aware of God’s presence?
When we reach the end of what we can do in our own strength, we begin to recognize just how much we need Him. The distractions of trying to manage everything ourselves can fade, and we become more aware of our need for His grace, His strength, and His guidance.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV), God tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
I’m learning that weakness doesn’t mean God has abandoned us, and helplessness doesn’t mean He isn’t working. Sometimes, it’s in those very places where we feel least capable that we learn to lean on Him most.
We may still long for healing, answers, and easier days, but even while we wait, we can experience His sustaining grace.
Perhaps that’s part of what God is teaching me through my own health struggles: I don’t have to be strong enough to handle everything on my own. I can allow Him to be my strength, trust Him with what I cannot control, and let Him continue shaping my heart.
Sometimes, our weakest moments become the very places where we see just how sufficient God’s grace really is.
5. God Develops His Fruit in Us
Sometimes, it is in our most helpless moments that God begins to develop the fruit of the Spirit in us.
When we cannot fix our circumstances or make things happen the way we want, we have an opportunity to learn to depend on Him more deeply. He can grow patience when we are tired of waiting, gentleness when we are tempted to react harshly, kindness when life feels hard, and faithfulness when we cannot see what lies ahead.
Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV) describes the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
These qualities don’t always develop when life is easy and everything goes according to our plans. Sometimes, God uses the very circumstances we wish He would remove to teach us to lean on Him and become more like Jesus.
That doesn’t mean our pain is insignificant or that we shouldn’t pray for relief. It means that even in our helplessness, God can still be at work in us.
When we are forced to wait, He can teach us patience. When we are misunderstood, He can teach us gentleness. When we feel discouraged, He can deepen our faith. And when someone else is hurting, He can use what we’ve experienced to help us respond with greater compassion.
When we cannot change what is happening around us, we can still invite God to change what is happening within us.
6. Let God Work in Us While He Works Through Us
When I put all of this together, I see a common thread.
God’s ways are higher than mine. He is working on my character, even when I wish He would simply change my circumstances. He is teaching me to examine my words and motives, and He is reminding me that I represent Him in the way I live and love others.
My health struggles are still part of my story. I don’t have every answer, and I don’t always understand why some things happen the way they do. But I am learning that my circumstances don’t have to prevent God from doing a meaningful work in my heart.