Tackling Disappointmentनमुना

All Things Work for Good

Have you ever looked back on your life and thought, “Phew! I’m glad that plan of mine didn’t work out!”? 

Let’s take the example of Betty who, while browsing through her Middle School yearbook, remembered the boy she had “planned” to marry. Well, turns out, little Jimmy didn’t turn out to be the man of her dreams. While Betty settled in suburban bliss, ‘Li’l Jim,’ as he is now called, has a life uncannily similar to the mob shows she watches on TV.

But when Jimmy snubbed Betty in her adolescence she didn’t know that. All she felt was hurt and disappointment, as she locked herself in her room and cried over the fairy tale that never was. 

This is, of course, a fictious example, but the truth is none of us can see the big picture. In the midst of our disappointment, we hold on to one piece of the puzzle, one chapter of the story, and we think: God, this makes no sense. Where is my happily-ever-after?

Today, God reminds us that He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He sees the big picture. Not only for our lives now – but for all eternity.

While you’re in the throes of disappointment, it’s hard to imagine that anything remotely good will come out of it. Consider Joseph from the Bible for a moment. The young man, full of potential, full of dreams, was trapped in a pit and then a prison. But, as we read in today’s Scripture portion, what others meant for evil, God used for good. God’s plans were far greater that Joseph’s and the young man became a lauded ruler. 

God is weaving the tapestry of our lives. As Corrie ten Boom writes: “My life is but a weaving, Between my God and me, I cannot choose the colors, He weaveth steadily. Oft' times He weaveth sorrow; And I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper, And I the underside.”

Today as you grapple with disappointment, remember this truth: All things work together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8: 28)

Sometimes, we only see the tangle of threads on the underside of the tapestry. It may take us months or years to grasp the “why” of God’s ways. Or, more likely, we may only understand only when we meet Him face to face. But when we trust God’s goodness, our disappointments are never dead-ends.