Not so very long ago, I was reading a new book before bed. I was completely wrapped up in the story, eager to know what happened next as the tension increased and the impact of the character’s decisions grew greater. Then something happened that had never occurred before in my memory. I had to put the book down. I had to stop reading. Not because something bad happened or the story just took a wrong turn. Rather, the author had given voice to a concept commonly referenced in Christian circles but in such a manner that I had to set the book down and actually think about what it meant.
In the passage, a character named Jovann walks in the land of dreams where things may appear differently than in the waking world. The Songbird, who is more than merely a bird, has guided him in the Dream before and asks Jovann to follow the new Path laid before him. Jovann hesitates a bit but answers with the following:
“‘My Lord,’ he said, ‘I must find the phantoms who plague my Lady Hariawan. Will this path take me to them?’
‘It will,’ said the bird.
‘Ah.’ He’d almost hoped for a different answer. ‘Well. That’s good then, yes?’
‘No,’ said the bird. ‘But it will be good.’”
From Golden Daughter, Page 264.
Read that again:
“‘That’s good then, yes?’
‘No,’ said the bird. ‘But it will be good.’”
It will be good.
There are a lot of things that happen in this life that are hard. That are not good. Death. Anger. Unfaithfulness. Jealousy. Backstabbing. Disrespect. Hatred. But for Christians, we have the promise that “...all things work together for good to those who love God…” (Romans 8:28)
I’ve heard Romans 8:28 used many times as a comforting verse to people when things aren’t going well or when they’ve lost a loved one. “It’s going to be ok,” we’re told. “God has a plan for all this.” What I think we often fail to consider is that “No” that comes before “But it will be good.”
As a Christian, I can take comfort and have hope in the fact that God will work all things out for the good and for his glory. However, that does not mean that everything that happens in my life, or in the lives of others, is necessarily good in and of itself. Joseph being sold into slavery by his own brothers and later spending years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit was not a good thing of itself. The martyrdom of Jim Elliot Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint was not in and of itself a good thing*. Jesus’s torture and death in and of itself was not a good thing. What came out of these events, though, was.
Because Joseph was in Egypt, he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and assume a leadership position that enabled him to save his family (and the entire country) when famine spread across the land.
Because of the example of the five missionaries in Ecuador, their families were able to return to the Auca people and bring the Gospel to them and other people groups nearby. Jim’s wife, Elisabeth Elliot, also has a far reaching ministry sharing the Gospel and fundamentals of Christian living in part because of the notoriety of her husband’s sacrifice.
Because Jesus humbled himself and took the punishment that was mine for sin and was tortured and killed, there is hope for the world. I can be saved and become a child of the Most High God forevermore.
And those are just three examples I can think of off the top of my head.
Its easy to lose sight of the fact that just because nothing happens outside of God’s plan and that all things will work together for good, it does not mean that all things that happen are good things. We live in a fallen, sinful, broken world in which bad things happen. Often to good people. It doesn’t make sense. If God is good, why would he have all this evil occur at all? Why use evil for good instead of just keeping everything good? The short answer to that?
I don’t know.
Yeah, not a particularly helpful answer. But I do know this: our concept of good is often far too small.
We tend to think that a decent job, a happy family, a nice car, fair weather, and faithful friends equal “good.” But if we look at the larger context of Romans 8:28 we get this:
“28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (NKJV)
Now, Christians have been arguing about the whole predestination vs. free will question for decades (and will probably continue to do so until the end of time when God answers it for us) but that’s not what I want to consider here. Rather, take a look at what we are called or predestined to:
“according to His purpose...to be conformed to the image of His Son”
God will work all things together for good - and that good, is becoming like Christ. Its not health, wealth, and happiness. It may well be torture, poverty, and death. It is becoming more like Christ. Christ, God himself who took on the most torturous death known to mankind all to save an ungrateful bunch of people. Christ, who came to seek and save the lost. Christ, whose love knows no bounds and whose grace has no limits. No matter how how bad this thing is in and of itself, God can and will use it to make us more like his Son.
The times where we live in the “No,” when things are bad and life is just hard aren’t fun. Sometimes, we “don’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?”** But for those who trust in Christ, our hope is not merely a feeling or a desire for things to eventually work out well. Its a certainty, a confidence that “it will be” good in the end.
Right now, I'm living in the "No." It isn't easy. I'm far more scatterbrained than normal and I'm having some trouble remembering every little thing that needs doing. But God has been good even now and has let me see glimpses of the "it will be." By his grace and through his strength, I will walk with him through the darkness so that in the end, he can work out his purposes and make me more like Christ. It isn't easy and it isn't pleasant but it will be good.
The things that happen because Jovann finds the phantoms that haunt his lady’s dreams are not particularly good or pleasant. But in the context of the larger story, they bring about something that is good in a way the characters could not have imagined. I had to stop reading at that passage to be reminded that sometimes, we live in the “No” and that’s okay. Because that "No" is followed by "But it will be good."
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
In the passage, a character named Jovann walks in the land of dreams where things may appear differently than in the waking world. The Songbird, who is more than merely a bird, has guided him in the Dream before and asks Jovann to follow the new Path laid before him. Jovann hesitates a bit but answers with the following:
“‘My Lord,’ he said, ‘I must find the phantoms who plague my Lady Hariawan. Will this path take me to them?’
‘It will,’ said the bird.
‘Ah.’ He’d almost hoped for a different answer. ‘Well. That’s good then, yes?’
‘No,’ said the bird. ‘But it will be good.’”
From Golden Daughter, Page 264.
Read that again:
“‘That’s good then, yes?’
‘No,’ said the bird. ‘But it will be good.’”
It will be good.
There are a lot of things that happen in this life that are hard. That are not good. Death. Anger. Unfaithfulness. Jealousy. Backstabbing. Disrespect. Hatred. But for Christians, we have the promise that “...all things work together for good to those who love God…” (Romans 8:28)
I’ve heard Romans 8:28 used many times as a comforting verse to people when things aren’t going well or when they’ve lost a loved one. “It’s going to be ok,” we’re told. “God has a plan for all this.” What I think we often fail to consider is that “No” that comes before “But it will be good.”
As a Christian, I can take comfort and have hope in the fact that God will work all things out for the good and for his glory. However, that does not mean that everything that happens in my life, or in the lives of others, is necessarily good in and of itself. Joseph being sold into slavery by his own brothers and later spending years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit was not a good thing of itself. The martyrdom of Jim Elliot Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint was not in and of itself a good thing*. Jesus’s torture and death in and of itself was not a good thing. What came out of these events, though, was.
Because Joseph was in Egypt, he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and assume a leadership position that enabled him to save his family (and the entire country) when famine spread across the land.
Because of the example of the five missionaries in Ecuador, their families were able to return to the Auca people and bring the Gospel to them and other people groups nearby. Jim’s wife, Elisabeth Elliot, also has a far reaching ministry sharing the Gospel and fundamentals of Christian living in part because of the notoriety of her husband’s sacrifice.
Because Jesus humbled himself and took the punishment that was mine for sin and was tortured and killed, there is hope for the world. I can be saved and become a child of the Most High God forevermore.
And those are just three examples I can think of off the top of my head.
Its easy to lose sight of the fact that just because nothing happens outside of God’s plan and that all things will work together for good, it does not mean that all things that happen are good things. We live in a fallen, sinful, broken world in which bad things happen. Often to good people. It doesn’t make sense. If God is good, why would he have all this evil occur at all? Why use evil for good instead of just keeping everything good? The short answer to that?
I don’t know.
Yeah, not a particularly helpful answer. But I do know this: our concept of good is often far too small.
We tend to think that a decent job, a happy family, a nice car, fair weather, and faithful friends equal “good.” But if we look at the larger context of Romans 8:28 we get this:
“28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (NKJV)
Now, Christians have been arguing about the whole predestination vs. free will question for decades (and will probably continue to do so until the end of time when God answers it for us) but that’s not what I want to consider here. Rather, take a look at what we are called or predestined to:
“according to His purpose...to be conformed to the image of His Son”
God will work all things together for good - and that good, is becoming like Christ. Its not health, wealth, and happiness. It may well be torture, poverty, and death. It is becoming more like Christ. Christ, God himself who took on the most torturous death known to mankind all to save an ungrateful bunch of people. Christ, who came to seek and save the lost. Christ, whose love knows no bounds and whose grace has no limits. No matter how how bad this thing is in and of itself, God can and will use it to make us more like his Son.
The times where we live in the “No,” when things are bad and life is just hard aren’t fun. Sometimes, we “don’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?”** But for those who trust in Christ, our hope is not merely a feeling or a desire for things to eventually work out well. Its a certainty, a confidence that “it will be” good in the end.
Right now, I'm living in the "No." It isn't easy. I'm far more scatterbrained than normal and I'm having some trouble remembering every little thing that needs doing. But God has been good even now and has let me see glimpses of the "it will be." By his grace and through his strength, I will walk with him through the darkness so that in the end, he can work out his purposes and make me more like Christ. It isn't easy and it isn't pleasant but it will be good.
The things that happen because Jovann finds the phantoms that haunt his lady’s dreams are not particularly good or pleasant. But in the context of the larger story, they bring about something that is good in a way the characters could not have imagined. I had to stop reading at that passage to be reminded that sometimes, we live in the “No” and that’s okay. Because that "No" is followed by "But it will be good."
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
“Let this blest assurance control,
“That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
“And hath shed His own blood for my soul”
From the hymn It is Well With my Soul by Horatio G. Spafford
*Jim Elliot Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint went as missionaries to Ecuador to reach peoples who had never heard the Gospel. The Auca were known as a particularly bloody tribe and they were warned against going. The men went anyway. After meeting a few of the men of the tribe, the missionaries were hopeful that they could really begin to share Christ with them. But instead, the tribesmen came against them and killed them. though they had guns and could have defended themselves, the missionaries chose to die rather than kill those who had not yet received Christ in the hopes that their sacrifice would pave the way for the Gospel to spread among the Auca. It did. The book, Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot tells the story in detail.
**Partial quote from The Two Towers movie as spoken by Sam Gamgee. :-)
*Jim Elliot Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint went as missionaries to Ecuador to reach peoples who had never heard the Gospel. The Auca were known as a particularly bloody tribe and they were warned against going. The men went anyway. After meeting a few of the men of the tribe, the missionaries were hopeful that they could really begin to share Christ with them. But instead, the tribesmen came against them and killed them. though they had guns and could have defended themselves, the missionaries chose to die rather than kill those who had not yet received Christ in the hopes that their sacrifice would pave the way for the Gospel to spread among the Auca. It did. The book, Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot tells the story in detail.
**Partial quote from The Two Towers movie as spoken by Sam Gamgee. :-)
