There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used
an old horse to plough his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills
and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck,
the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later,
the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the
neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good
luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"
Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses,
he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck.
Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who
knows?"
Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every
able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his
broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck? Who knows?
When we look back over our life, whether it be long or short,
I think many of us have regrets and there have probably been many
disappointments: relationships that didn’t work; marriages that broke up;
careers that fell apart; unexpected sickness that changed everything. We think that ‘If only things had gone
differently…’ While it is normal to
experience disappointment I think the eyes of faith can help us to see it
differently.
In the story it talks about ‘good luck, bad luck’, but we
call it providence. The Lord
provides. As humans we continually make
mistakes, but the wonderful thing is that the Lord can and does bring
extraordinary good even out of our mistakes.
In the book of Genesis we read that Moses actually murdered a man and
then in fear of the punishment he fled the country. That was his life written off you’d
imagine. Yet years later God appeared to
him in the burning bush and sent him to rescue his people from slavery. King David committed adultery and then had
the woman’s husband murdered to cover his tracks. This was a terrible double crime. Eventually he took this woman Bathsheba to be
his wife. However, the second child born
to Bathsheba was the future king Solomon who was considered probably the
greatest king of Israel because he brought peace and rebuilt the temple. God can bring extraordinary good out of our
worst mistakes. God is not put off by our mistakes.
Many of the things that went wrong for us that we look back can
seem quite different if we look on them with the eyes of faith. I don’t mean by that that it’s good that they
happened, but sometimes they also lead us to other unexpected good things. That is what we call providence. This also gives us great hope because it means
that even when things do go wrong it’s not the end of the line.
I always find it inspiring to see the great goodness that
comes out in people when someone experiences tragedy or when a natural disaster
occurs. People come out of the woodwork
to help and often the charity shown in turn brings more goodness out of
people. It is contagious.
So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and
what misfortune, and thank him that all things turn out for good with those who
love him.
Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the Lord
intends?
For the deliberations of mortals
are timid,
and unsure are our plans.
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