Bad Things, Good People part 3
We always want something (or someone) to blame. Have you ever noticed that? The days of personal responsibility seem to have gone by the wayside. "It's not my fault." That victim mentality. "I didn't do anything wrong." And my question to that is, "Ok... did you do anything right?" Because Jesus said the man born with blindness was not being punished. It was nobody's fault. It was just life. And it was also an opportunity for God--love... healing... wholeness--to manifest Himself. We can always choose what comes next. Something happens, and it's out of our control. Again, that's life. But what we CAN control is how we react to it. My uncle always says life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it. Because it rains on the just and the unjust alike. Remember when Forrest Gump was running, and he ran through some poo? That man made a lot of money on the bumper sticker from Gump's "wisdom." Sh*t happens, to put it bluntly. But what did old Forrest do? He just kept on running. Until he got tired. Then he went home. Point being, you can let stuff drag you down, or you can just keep on keeping on. Look at what happened when Peter was walking on water (or, really, on the Word of God) and then got distracted by the wind and the waves, took his eyes off Jesus, and started to drown. "Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?"" (Matthew 14:31 MSG). I love that line so much. What got into you? Because that's the central idea here. It doesn't matter what you go through. It matters what goes through you. It doesn't matter what you get into. It matters what gets into you. We should be so full of God's light of life that there is no room for anything else. He IS light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. So even if sh*t happens, we can just scrape it off our shoes and keep going. Even if the wind and the waves seem out of control we can keep our eyes on what really matters--Jesus. Love. Remember another time when the disciples were in a boat and the storm was raging? Jesus was asleep down below. Totally unconcerned. Because it didn't matter what He was getting into. Because it wasn't going to get into Him. It wasn't going to affect Him. And then, for His disciples sake, He simply told the storm to knock it off. And it did. The Word of God--which, again, is Jesus. Love--is the most powerful thing in all of creation. Jesus was literally that Word made flesh. LOVE made flesh. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. As He is, so are we in this world. We can be as unshakable as He is, because we are planted on the Rock, the foundation, that is love! And when we're planted on that Rock we can stand fast no matter what. So the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" kind of becomes moot. And the real question is revealed as, "What do you do when something happens that doesn't seem great?" You look at the bigger picture. You trust God. You let all things work together for good. And you love everything and everybody in sight. That's how to truly live the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that we've been given. It's not about what happens to you. It's about what you do--love!