Bad Things, Good People part 4
It's that snapshot mentality that I talk about so often. Thinking that where we are right now is where we will be forever. Thinking that what is happening right now is what will be happening forever. We get stuck in our current circumstances, is what I'm trying to say. Which can be pretty good, if things are going ok, but can also be pretty awful if they aren't. And the point is: Life comes with ups and downs. If you let those highs and lows wreck you (in a bad way OR a good way) you'll feel like you're going off the rails on a crazy train. You'll feel like life is too much. Too unpredictable. What we need to do is see the bigger picture. See that while everything might not look good, or feel good, that doesn't mean we have to let it take us for a ride. Look at Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." And let me say right off the bat here: I believe we are all the called. I believe that what God has... He has for everybody. For God so loved the world, right? The whole world. Everybody who has ever been or will ever be. That's who God loves. That who God gave Himself for... and to. So let's not get stuck on who all things work together for. And let's focus on WHAT all things work together for. They work together for good. Remember Jeremiah 29:11? "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Thoughts of peace... to give you an expected end. God knows the end from the beginning. And, yes, I believe that sometimes we make things harder on ourselves than they need to be. What my dad calls, "Going around the mountain." But even when the people of Israel were "wandering" in the wilderness... in truth, God was leading them step by step. Teaching them--quite literally--how to live as free people now that they were no longer slaves. And, yes, there were some missteps. As there will always be when freedom is on the menu. People will always abuse whatever is available to them. But that doesn't mean it's not a good thing. A necessary thing. God didn't take the people of Israel's freedom away from them when they abused it. He chastened them, and corrected them, like any good father will. But nothing you can do will ever disqualify you from God's love. And that's what freedom is--not freedom TO sin, but freedom FROM sin. Freedom TO LOVE! So when we're looking at this idea of why bad things happen to good people... it's just life. It's just THINGS happening. And no matter how they look, they are all working together for good. Everything in life can either be a lesson or a blessin', right? It's all in how you react to what happens. It's all in what you take from it. Every cloud has a silver lining. As long as you're learning and growing you can keep moving forward. You can lose the snapshot mentality and focus on the expected end. You can check yourself before you wreck yourself. Or before you let ANYTHING wreck you. You can stand fast on the Rock that is Jesus. The Rock that is love. And when you do that you cannot be shaken. You can get through what you need to go through in order to get to where you need to go!