Good Person

Today a college friend of mine called for some spiritual support and friendship support regarding being in a divorce. My heart wept. It is never a good thing to hear about a marriage falling apart and in the destruction phase, ending. This begs the question why do bad things happen to good people?

If you asked me as a little girl around my daughter's age, I would've told you that there were all these dreams and visions God gave me. Thirty something years later, I'm following in that young girl's dreams & visions, but the journey to get there is very far from what was anticipated.

Overall, I've been a good person in the world's standards. Jealousy wasn't something that reigned in my body, though, for much of my life, I was incredibly competitive. Good sportsmanship marked me, as well as a persevering spirit. Celebrating other people's successes was and is a strong trait of mine.

So why have so many bad things happened to me? Afterall, I'm a Christian and God is on my side, right? Is God bad? No, God is good ALL the time. God cannot do anything bad. He gives people free will and sometimes that free will means that people make bad choices that do negatively impact me. Any person has their own ability to make wrong choices at any time, just as they do right choices.

The Bible says that it in Matthew 5:45, ". . . He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." This verse tells us that good and bad things happen to both good and bad people.

What I'm learning is that even in these dark times, God shows up so well. In fact, God shows up so well when things are great, but because often there is an independence on God during those good times, we don't acknowledge our need on the Lord. He wants our fellowship. He wants that intimate time with us, but we neglect Him. He wants to be totally Lord of our lives.

John 15:5 says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Can a grape say that he wants to be all by himself and be okay, live and thrive? No, he must remain on the vine depending on the vine to give him his food, nourishment so he can grow, thrive, live.

Isn't it ridiculous that the grapes that choose to detach from the vine and think they can make it on their own? How often do we do that in our own lives as Christians? When my children were toddlers, I can hear them saying, "No, I can do it all by myself!" Aren't we like that? What a fallacy?

When we are plugged into the Source (God) that gives us Life, we are totally connected to a powerful life. It's just that most of us fail to recognize this and live it out in faithful actions. The thing is, most people will experience sorrow, pain, regret and a host of events in their lives that will hurt greatly. For the Christian, they can choose to rely on God. For the non-Christian, I'm not sure who you would lean on that would truly comfort.

Pain, not something that I desire, but there is a gift in pain. For with pain, it not only tells us something is awry, but it's often an instigator to change, as we will be more opened to change hopefully.