According to His Purpose (Meredith Liu)

In seventh grade, one of my only Christian friends from childhood gifted me a ring that had a Romans 8:28 inscription on it: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” To this day, it is one of the most critical pieces of scripture I have in my memorized arsenal. It reminds me that it is impossible for our sovereign God, with His infinite wisdom and resources, to waste something that could bring Him glory—even when we are tempted to see nothing but heartache in our circumstances.

I have been thinking about this verse often, especially in my reflections on the last five years. It was in April of 2020 when I wrote a piece for The Carver Project called “Grief and Gratitude.” In the piece, I processed the loss of my senior spring semester at WashU. Just a week prior, I had packed up the life I had spent four years building in St. Louis to move back in with my parents and finish my degree online. In the essay, I reflected on the experience of loss and disappointment while simultaneously fighting to recognize and trust God’s hand in the situation.

It would be tone deaf not to acknowledge that Covid certainly brought with it intense tragedy. Many people lost loved ones, experienced devastating layoffs, and struggled with profound mental health battles. In my family of healthcare workers, we saw a lot of devastation firsthand.

But it would also do the Lord a great disservice if we failed to acknowledge that this forced pause in my manufactured trajectory was perhaps one of the greatest opportunities for my spiritual, emotional, and physical development. Without Covid, I would have barreled on through to the next thing on my to-do list with no opportunity to rebuild broken aspects of my life that were doomed to be overlooked.

Each person has had their own experience with Covid. Tragedy should not and cannot be glossed over. But this is what my experience looked like. In the eighteen months I lived at home with my parents, I nannied a beautiful young boy, competed (highly impulsively) in Miss Rhode Island USA, bolstered my relationship with my parents, pivoted to apply to graduate programs in graphic design, and healed parts of my soul that were deeply hurting. By the time I left Rhode Island for grad school in Georgia, I was healthier, happier, and more confident in the Lord’s faithfulness than I ever had been.

Even in my naïveté at twenty-one years old writing my essay in 2020, I could cling to the truth outlined in scripture, that the Lord is good. His goodness rarely takes the form that we expect, but we can trust in His faithfulness. He wants to lavish us with His unfailing love (Deuteronomy 7:9), His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23), and He works in all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Five years later, I can look back on what God has done since this time and say with certainty that, although hardships even greater than Covid are guaranteed on this side of Heaven, Jesus is king over all—and He has mercifully extended His boundless grace and salvation to us.

Meredith Liu served on staff with The Carver Project as a student (2017–2020), and then remotely after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis until 2024. She now lives in Washington, DC working as a graphic designer.

Read Meredith’s previous article from 2020: “Grief and Gratitude”