Sometimes It’s Not Your Story…or why Christians think it is all about them

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One of the biggest questions most non-believers and believers struggle with is “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Ask a non-believer why they don’t accept God’s love and grace, and many times you will hear, “I just can’t accept that a God would let ____ happen to _____.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

We think it means that God is always working for the good of Me. But it says he works for the “good of his people, who have been called according to his purpose.” We tend to look at everything through our own lens, the perspective of Me. So the premise of this post is that “Sometimes It’s Not Your Story.”

For most bad things that happen to you, it is actually good for someone else. Almost every story has two sides and sometimes our side is on top and sometimes it isn’t.

In other words, there is a positive to almost every negative; just maybe not for you.

• You didn’t get a job; somebody got that job.
• Some horrible accident happened to you or a loved one — but it didn’t happen to someone else. Some powerful testimonies are from people that can say “but for the grace of God…” So you were hurt badly because someone ran a red light at the exact instant you were going through the intersection, but… there is a car that was 20 feet behind you that has one hell of a story that they felt God’s presence and protection with them that day.
• Horrible, freak accidents that happen and change the course of a family’s life. I don’t know about you, but because of things I have read on social media, I have moved the cords to my blinds, don’t let my kids ride on riding mower, and listen for the coughs of dry drowning after we go swimming. I do that because someone lost a child. Let that soak in… someone lost a child. But…… their story may have saved hundreds of other kids.
• You are struggling with incurable cancer — but someone came to know Christ because of seeing your faith or a loved one decides to go to medical school so they can save countless others.

In all those instances, crappy for you, but…..possibly good for other people. God works for the good of his people, all of them.

Sometimes it is your good, and sometimes it isn’t. But it also could be sometimes it’s your time, and sometimes you have to wait.