Sometimes all you can do to get through it- is worship.

The Nelons, a Southern Gospel group, were involved in a tragic plane crash on July 26th, 2024. The family was en route to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska when the accident occurred. The crash claimed the lives of Jason and Kelly Nelon Clark, their daughter Amber and son-in-law Nathan Kistler, their assistant Melodi Hodges, and the pilot Larry Haynie and his wife Melissa.

Autumn Nelon Streetman, the youngest member of the Nelons and daughter of Kelly Nelon Clark and Jason Clark, and Autumn’s husband, Jamie Streetman, were not on the plane and arrived safely in Seattle. They were notified of the accident and brought to the hotel where fellow artists, including Bill and Gloria Gaither, gathered to support them. The community joined together to pray, sing, and offer their heartfelt condolences, pledging unwavering support during this difficult time.

The GMA Hall of Fame group was set to release what is said to be their most important body of work on August 30th.

– Excerpt from The Christian Beat

What a powerful story. After a tragic accident, these people gathered and they sang praises to the Lord. How is that even possible?

I have felt this in my life. When I read that story I was immediately transported to a hard memory.

Two years ago my grandpa died suddenly due to health issues that no one knew about. When we got the news, my family was exactly four hours away on vacation. I can still feel the heaviness from that car ride home when I think about it. None of us spoke a word. All we could do was sit there and listen to worship music.

Specifically, the words from one of these songs stayed with me.

May your struggles keep you near the cross
And may your troubles show that you need God
And may your battles end the way they should
And may your bad days prove that God is good | “God is Good” by Jonathan McReynolds

How can our bad days prove that God is good? When everything is falling apart and messy, how does that prove His goodness?

Because we know how the story ends. He saved us, and that’s why we worship Him. We don’t have to know the answers and it is okay to be sad and mourn. The Lord says there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3). But He will take all of that mess and turn it into something beautiful, something for our good (Romans 8), something for a hopeful future (Jeremiah 29).

Some versions of Psalm 42 use the phrase “Deep calls unto deep.”

The verse right after this claims that each day God pours His unfailing love upon us. To me, this verse means that even when our souls our crushed and we are in our deepest darkest place, God reaches out and pours His love in ways that we can’t even fathom. No one knows how deep or how wide His love is (Ephesians 3). You literally cannot contain or measure it.

God’s love doesn’t make sense. And yet He created us and has a purpose for every one of us. When the hard times, inevitably come- we can worship Him.

There is healing power in our worship. When things are out of our control, we can shift our mindset to the One who is in control. And there is no place you could reach mentally, emotionally, or physically that God’s love can’t reach you. That’s how our bad days prove that God is good.

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