Do you ever find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be in? Maybe you got lost on the way to someplace important. Maybe catastrophe struck and your plans were wrecked. The result was that you found yourself in a situation that you didn’t choose. It could be a big improvement over what you had planned. More often than not, however, you find yourself in a situation that you would never have chosen. You might even call your new situation a disaster. In our secular world we call these things “bad luck”. Some eastern philosophies would blame it on you…….”bad Karma”. Today, I want to explore bad things that happen to good people, because they do happen…….every day.
Take a minute and call to mind the worst thing that ever happened to you. This could be tough. Many of us have lots of “disasters” to sort through. It could very well be the death of someone important to you. Maybe it was the job you didn’t get, the school that rejected your application, the marriage proposal that was rejected……or worse, the marriage that failed. For a lot of men my age, it was a low number in the Viet Nam war draft lottery (my number was 17). At the time, it looked to me like my world was ending. My long range plan was reduced to shreds in a matter of seconds. It looked like I would trade medical school for the jungles of Viet Nam. Instead, I spent 6 years in the National Guard and never saw the jungle.
If you are a secular humanist, then you can write all of this off to bad luck……or Karma. But……if you are a Christian……. things get far more complicated. I believe that an intelligent creator made everything here, including me, for a purpose. That purpose is usually hidden from me. Believe it or not, God does not consult me…….ask for my approval……before he acts. I believe that the creator, God, has his hand in everything that happens, good and bad. I believe that God is working out his long range plan every day. It is unbelievably complex, and I am oblivious to the vast majority of it. Furthermore, I am usually not at the center of God’s plan. My part is usually that of a minor supporting actor. So, from time to time, God sends something into my life that I just don’t understand……something that I just don’t like…….something that compromises my goals and foils my appetites for the foreseeable future. I call this a disaster, because from my limited perspective, that is what it looks like. I ask God “why?” and I rarely get an answer that I can use.
So……how do we handle it……..when God sends what looks like a disaster into our lives?
Deny God:
This is patently absurd. God is either real or he is not. The fact that we disapprove of his work today is irrelevant. He either is or he is not. God does not ask for……God does not need…….our approval.
Get mad at God:
This is even worse. We recognize that God is large and in charge…….and we then throw mud at him…….to teach him a lesson. We believe that we can punish God by witholding our favor. Good luck with that.
Feel sorry for ourselves:
We focus on the things that God sends us that we don’t like…….to the exclusion of his blessings. We do this because we believe that our plan is better than his plan. We do this because, in practice, we believe that we are the center of the universe. This often works it’s way back to anger at God. It never improves the situation.
Or.
We can trust God. We can lean into his love for us. We can rely on his promises…….that it’s all going to be OK in the end……..that if it’s not OK now, then this isn’t the end. And this is very hard. It is very easy to love and trust God when you get into a top college. It is much harder when, that blessing is ripped away and replaced with the possibility of a one way trip to a jungle on the other side of the world.
In the end, God demands two things from us:
Love and Trust. Love for his person and trust in his plan.
And there’s more:
There is a very real possibility that the “disaster” that you are facing is God placing you in the path of someone who needs you. Perhaps, the disruption that you are facing is happening because God has a job for you to do…..a job that would have never crossed your desk if you stuck to your plan. So……when disaster strikes…….listen. Listen very hard.
Maybe God has an errand for you.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21: 4, ESV
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Psalm 23: 4-6, ES6