For good

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

I've gone awhile without posting anything "deep" but I have had this saved in my drafts intending to write it down for awhile. It kept being in the back of mind through various events in my life and in those of friends.

I suppose this verse is one of the most used verses in the Bible, right alongside Psalm 23, John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13. As we are all well aware sometimes the most used scriptures and stories get somehow overlooked in their significance to our lives. How many times have we quoted these verses without much thought to what they really mean? Surely I am not the only one to do this. :-)

As you go through the valley of the shadow of death you often wonder--okay God you said that ALL things work together for good but I just don't know HOW you can mean this to be good! I've asked that myself many times over the last few years. How can this be good? It isn't even YOUR WILL that these things should happen, we know it from Your Word! How can You let it and how can it be GOOD? I mean some of the testings in the Bible I think well duh, God made good out of that sad situation--but that wasn't a situation that seemed to go against His Will. During one such time of pondering I had one of those light bulb experiences...God didn't say that it WAS good but that it would work together FOR good. A simple thing to some but a dramatic difference to myself and the way my silly little mind works.

When I looked back over the events of the last several years it amazed me just how many "good" things had happened because of the place I was in. Things that would never have happened if I hadn't been there and yet they were able to happen because of the trials and testing God lead us through. It has been hard, and it has hurt and still hurts and we are still in that valley but as I looked back I could not wish any of those things away. If you had asked me five years ago to choose a path and shown me all the hurt and despair of this road I still can't say honestly I would have chosen this path. But I have seen how God can use this FOR good in my life and in the lives of my family. And perhaps one day I will say that I would gladly walk through that path again for the good that it brought...but right now I am just clinging to faith and hope that God knows what He is doing and that we are walking through the valley of death.