Things Happen

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some articles that I wrote for Grace & Honor, my former church's ladies paper. You can view the Grace & Honor online and there are lots of great articles there... both in the archives and posted new every other month! Some of these are things that I wrote a long time ago, but they are still good, so I wanted to post them here too in case you missed them. :)

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Originally written for Grace & Honor, January 2010.

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Things happen.

Things happen that I would not approve of for my life. If I was walking through a store of “Choices for Rachel’s Life,” I would not take those things off the shelf to put into my cart. I would leave them there! No, surely it is better to leave them there.

But that is not how life generally works out. There are the small things – the little frustrations, the changing of schedules, the annoyances that arise, the distractions. Then there are the big things – complete life changes, disastrous news, unexpected things that happen that change our course.

There are only two starting points for things that happen in my life. First, those things can be coming straight from my Father. He has sent them to me, a special gift of love, packaged up in a challenging situation. I can trust that He knows best, that He has a purpose and a plan for this thing, and that He already has a solution worked out. Second, those things can be coming from the devil as a temptation for me to sin. But even then, I can be assured that God has allowed this to come, and again – He knows best, He has a purpose and a plan for this thing, and He already has a solution worked out. No matter the origin of this thing, Satan wants me to fret, to do something rash, and to hurt the name of Christ, while God wants me to trust, to do the right thing, so that His will be done. Furthermore, God has promised that He will never send me more than I can bear.

So it all comes down to my response. Whether the thing be small or large, whether it be painful or boring, whether it be long or short, I need to be aware of my reaction.

Isn’t it so reassuring that He already knows about this thing? Isn’t it wonderful to know that He was not caught by surprise? Isn’t it good to remember that I can always trust Him – for the large as well as the small?