We Don’t Have To Wait For The Good
The Lord promises that all things will give us experience and will be for our good. Sometimes, when we think about this promise, we imagine that even though our current situation is terrible, some day, off in the distant future, the Lord will reveal some insight to us in how this made our lives better, and I think this is often true. We don’t know how certain aspects of our life will go on to affect our lives. I may struggle with terrible seasonal allergies and wonder if any good could possibly come of this, and it may turn out that those seasonal allergies were keeping my immune system drilled and ready to take on a disease that may have killed me if my immune system didn’t have all that extra practice chasing after ragweed and pollen. But I don’t think we have to wait until later before we can start seeing the good that comes from our terrible experiences. We are all going to face things that are so horrible that we don’t deserve and that seem utterly beyond our abilities and our faith and our sanity and sometimes it’s all we can do to muddle through the next nanosecond without collapsing into a blackhole of misery and depression. But we can choose to try to find meaning in our suffering, to try to find the good amongst all of the bad, and maybe, if there is no good to be found, then to create the good out of sheer will and stubbornness. We would be perfectly justified in allowing ourselves to be consumed by our grief and terror and hopelessness. It may be the only logical or rational option that seems to be available to us. And it isn’t right or fair to ask us to rise above our suffering and take on more responsibilities and find in or make beauty out of the overwhelming tsunami of ugliness we’re drowning in. But we can try to do it anyway. There will be a day when God himself will wipe the tears from our eyes and will open our understanding so that we can see with wonder and awe the majestic tapestry He managed to weave out of our entire lives, the bitter and the sweet, the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad, but we do not have to wait until that day to find or to make good out of the evil we currently face. Joseph the son of Israel was thrown into a pit by his own brothers and then sold into slavery. He could have wallowed in misery. He could have white knuckled his way through trusting that someday this would all make sense. But that’s not what he did. He chose to make of his terrible misfortune something good, something right. And he eventually improved the world around him so much that his master trusted him with his whole household. Then Joseph got thrown into prison. He was back in the hole, in the dark. Joseph could have said, Lord, I tried to turn the ugliness into beauty and you once again rewarded me with more ugliness and darkness. I’m done. I won’t do it again. I know trying only gets me to a worse off place. But no, that’s not what Joseph did. He chose again not to wait for some far off future where good might come from his terrible situation, he decided to improve his lot in life immediately. Nobody would have blamed Joseph for sitting in his dark cell brooding. He was certainly justified in doing so. And nobody would blame us for finding ourselves unable to cope or overcome the terrible situations we find ourselves in. And it isn’t reasonable or fair to expect us to try to make something good out of so much bad. But God gave us the capacity to create good, even from the bad, and He will consecrate our efforts in making good out of the bad and the ugly situations we face. We don’t have to wait until someday for the good to be in our life.
