I read something someone posted online recently that good things happen to good people. And I wondered if the person was insinuating that if something bad happens, it must be because you are a bad person. It’s like the t-shirt I saw this morning at one of my favorite retail stores that said something like “send good vibes—it creates good karma.”
Should I suppose, then, that my MS is due to bad behavior or that I’m just not on the positive vibe train?
I am immediately reminded of the verses at the top of this blog: John 9:1-3.
“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
My church has been studying the book of Job in Bible study this semester. While I couldn’t attend in person, I followed from a distance and read and listened to the audio teachings each week. Job’s friends were on the good behavior train noted above: Job must be in bad standing with God to deserve this magnificent suffering.
But today I listened to one of my pastors speak about Job 40 and 41, and he used a quote from Flannery O’Connor: “A God that you can understand would have to be less than yourself.” It may seem logical to us that good people have success and bad things happen to bad people. It fits in our pretty little box. But what this quote so rightly reminds us (and thank God!), is that we cannot possibly understand our God. As my pastor further mentions, He is a God that is sovereign not only over the good but also the disorder and chaos of this universe. We cannot understand. But He does.
He asks Job in Job 40:8, “Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” Basically, as my pastor went on to explain, will Job put God in the wrong in order to make himself right? No! No! No! we scream on this side of the story. God is right…even Job recognizes that. His ways are too great for us to understand. And yet ultimately—in the most selfless and loving act—God does make Job right. He condemns His own son to the cross so that we might be saved.
The truth is, if I really got what I deserved at the end of each day…I can’t fathom the outcome. I am a sinner! Every day.
At the end of his teaching, he reminded us that we must recognize who we are and we must recognize who God is. We must bow down to the God in heaven who wakes us up each morning. We must recognize that it isn’t about good vibes or being a good person—it is about having faith in a God of great mercy--one that gave His own son so that those who believe might have eternal life--while living in a world that has great suffering.
After all, that’s what grace is: unmerited favor—not giving us what we deserve.
I am challenged to hold onto the hope that God holds each breath and each day in His hands. That this world and my salvation do not depend on my own behavior or my positive outlook on life. Like the man born blind, it was not something that he did to deserve it. Bad things happen to good people. And we cannot possibly understand it all.
Jesus Christ, though, was perfect. And He took on the ultimate suffering so that we might have hope.
I pray that we will seek Him today and take great comfort in that hope!