Good isn't always Good
In Romans 8:28, Paul says God will cause all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called by him. Notice Paul did not say everything was good. It isn’t. Some things in life are terrible, or to use a highly spiritual term, “they stink.” OK, maybe it isn’t a spiritual term, but it’s true. The key in this scripture is that God works all of our life, the good, the bad, and even the boring together for good.
Our problem is that we focus on one piece of the puzzle while God works on bringing the whole together.
My wife, Michelle, and I were watching “Cutthroat Kitchen” on TV the other day. In the last challenge of this cooking show, one of the cooks was making a muffin with some really great ingredients. He had tasted the batter and thought he had victory in the bag. However, as these muffins were baking he could tell something was wrong.
When the judge looked at them and tasted them he asked, “Did you remember to put baking soda in?” The contestant was crushed. In the fast pace of the competition, he had forgotten to add the baking soda. He probably only needed a teaspoon of the stuff but forgetting it caused his defeat. By the way, have you ever tried baking soda? It’s nasty stuff, but when it is called for, it’s needed.
For any of you who have done any baking, you know there are a lot of important ingredients that are just awful, but you have to use them if you want the dish to turn out.
In life, it is the same way. There are things, which are not good but are important to you. If you look at this one thing, then it would be easy to say that life is terrible, but that is just one ingredient. We need to look at the whole.
Of course, many want a life without any bad ingredients. The problem is that life doesn’t turn out right if all you have is good. This life, because of the fall of man, has to have a balance of flavors.
When my youngest daughter, Elizabeth, was quite young, she would try and make a pie when I did. She would pick all the ingredients, which she thought were good; sugar, chocolate, candy, fruit pieces and the like. She would take the ingredients and either put them in a pie crust I had made or she would just mix them with flour and want me to bake it. I usually did.
Though she was proud, and to be honest, I am proud she tried, none of her creations were very good. Yes, they were normally overpoweringly sweet, but they were never great and often they were terrible. Why? She tried to make something great out of only what she thought was good.
This is the problem in our lives. We want God to do something great, but we want him to use only the ingredients, which we think are good. To be honest, we don’t trust him.
When it comes to our faith, we need to have the belief, the trust, the expectancy that God is going to take whatever we face and do something great with it.
Someone might say, but what good is it if I die?
First, if you’re a Christian, then your life hasn’t ended. The best is yet to come.
Secondly, there are times when death is better than life. Star Trek’s original series alluded to this when Captain Kirk and Spock went back in time to repair the timeline, damaged accidentally by Dr. McCoy. In the past, Captain Kirk falls in love with a very good woman who wants nothing but peace. They discover that she was supposed to die in an accident but somehow Dr. McCoy saved her. Her living changed the timeline and her efforts to bring peace delayed America entering World War II causing the Nazi’s to win.
Heartbroken, Captain Kirk has to stop Dr. McCoy from saving the woman he loves so everything will be right in the world.
You may say, “Yes, but that is just a story, in real life, it isn’t so.” If you think so, I would like to refer you to 2 Kings 20 where Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and tells him the sickness he has is going to kill him. Hezekiah cries to God and pleads and God restores him and gives him 15 more years.
Yes, this is great, right? No.
In 2 Kings 21, Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, takes the throne and ruled for 55 years doing the worst possible things, even sacrificing his own children. So how does Hezekiah’s miracle of living 15 more years have to do with Manasseh? Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king.
It could be argued that the nation would have been better if Hezekiah had just died. Harsh? Yes, but true.
God will work all things together for the good for those who love him, but we need to understand not everything is good.
The tough part is trusting.
Read the article in the Perry County News
http://www.perrycountynews.com/content/thoughts-pulpit-1
