Can we really know
whether to label life’s circumstances as good or bad? For instance, your car
breaks down right before you are to take a family road trip. But when you take
the car to the shop, the mechanic says, “Good thing you didn’t take this out on
the road. It could have caught fire.” Is that bad because of the inconvenience,
or good because of God’s protection?
Or perhaps your
child decides to pursue interests that aren’t all that interesting to you. You
wanted her to play basketball and run track in high school. But she wanted to
sing and play the oboe. You feel frustrated, but she excels and ends up with a
music scholarship. Is that bad because your dreams weren’t fulfilled, or good
because God directed her in ways you could not have predicted?
Sometimes it’s
hard to see how God is working. His mysteries don’t always reveal their secrets
to us, and our journey is often redirected by uncontrollable detours. Perhaps
God is showing us a better route.
To make sure we
benefit from what might seem bad, we must recognize and trust God’s “unfailing
love” (Ps. 13(12):05 NIV). In the end, we’ll be able to say, “I will sing to
the Lord, for He has been good to me”. (Ps.13(12):06 NIV).
We may not be able to control events,
but we can control our attitude toward them. (RBC)
