Stuff happens. Sometimes good things happen, and we call
them blessings. Sometimes bad things happen, and we call them troubles. If we
trust God we know everything happens for a reason. We all know that is easier
said than done.
Everything comes together and God will take whatever
situation we face and make it His own for those that love Him and are called by
His plan. Nothing happens that God does not already know about.
What happens after the blessing? What happens after the
trouble? That is what God wants to see. Sure He wants to see how we “react”
when something happens. But He also wants to see how we “act” after He reveals
what He has for us.
Blessings are easy. We feel special. We feel great. God
is good! It’s just like Christmas morning when we realize we have received what
we wanted most. It’s exactly what we expect.
Troubles are a little different. We always seem surprised
when trouble happens. Notice I said “when” trouble happens not “if” trouble
happens. Let’s be honest. Troubles WILL happen. It’s not what we wanted. It
does not come up to our expectations. Somebody else got what they wanted. Why
didn’t I?
Somebody said, “The definition of insanity is doing the
same thing over and over but expecting different results.”
When
disappointments happen, the easy thing to do is to blame; blame ourselves or
blame others, and sometimes both. Most times it’s hard to know what to say or
do because we don’t know the “why” or the “how” of the letdown. When is the
last time you “blamed” God for a blessing? It’s a good question.
Disappointment is often an emotional response to a failure
of some kind. This can lead to losing faith in someone on whom we were
depending, perhaps even a person we love.
The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus loved Martha, her
sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Because of this, they didn’t sense the
need to tell the Lord anything more than “Lord, your friend is sick.” (John
11:3) The way it is written seems to say, “Jesus your dear friend is sick, come
and do something.” There is this feeling of “expectation.” And the expectation
was that as soon as Jesus heard this, He would come and heal their brother. But
Jesus didn’t leave for two more days. And we know the story: Lazarus dies.
When Jesus finally arrives, Martha comes out to meet Him
and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John
3:21) She very clearly had the expectation that Jesus would drop whatever he
was doing and come right away. Lazarus would be saved and all would be great,
rainbows sprinkles and glitter. Wow what a blessing! God is good! But Mary
missed the point. She didn’t see God’s real purpose, which was to perform a
greater miracle.
God has reasons for permitting us to experience
disappointments. He could prevent them, but He wants to show us something
better. He wants to show us His purpose. His desire is that after the blessing
or after the disappointment we will trust and believe and let our circumstance
bring glory to Him.
Jesus did respond when He heard about
Lazarus. He said, “The end of this sickness will not be death. No, this
sickness is for the glory of God. This has happened to bring glory to the Son
of God.” (John 4:4)
And when Mary told Jesus how
disappointed she was, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection. I am life.
Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die.
Martha, do you believe this?” (John 4:25-26)
We know the story. Jesus went to the
tomb, and prayed loud enough that what he is doing is not for Himself, but for
God’s glory. He then had the tomb opened, and called out, “Lazarus, come on out
of there!”
Ten minutes before that everybody was
disappointed hurt and upset. They thought Jesus did not love them enough to
care. All they had to do was wait on Jesus.
When disappointments come, do we say God does not love us
and back away from God’s plans for our life? Or do we see disappointment as an
opportunity to open up and let God show us something, helping us to understand
His purpose and lesson in every situation?
The right response is simply to trust Him.
