Life is full of confounding things. Often times when a publically-traded company announces they made a billion dollars this past quarter the stock goes down. Traders dump it because they expected it to make two billion. Or it is sold off because they were so successful traders don’t believe they can do it again next quarter. Sometimes the opposite is true. A company loses money and the stock goes up. Why isn’t a two by four really two inches by four inches? Why does a golf course have 18 holes?
Actually those are fairly easy to explain. The tough ones are why are you you? Why aren’t you someone else? How is it that Jesus’ righteousness can be our righteousness? Where do my sins go when God forgives me? Why do some people ruin their own lives by hating someone? Can’t they see their hatred is harming themselves and not the person they hate? The most confounding of all is the Gospel. Why did God so love the world that He gave us His son?
We want so much for life to have meaning we invent stories in an attempt to make sense out of nonsense. We quote Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” and sometimes unwittingly think the bad occurred because God wanted it to. He never wants bad things to happen to His children. He is a good Father. What Paul means is God is smart enough to take the broken pieces of our lives and do something wonderful with them. Satan smashes and God fixes.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2008.
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574