There
is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to plow 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. Because we are human 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.
Many
of the things that went wrong for us 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. That is also why we try to thank God for all
situations, regardless of whether they make sense to us or not.
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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