The Twilight Zone

Also I’m from that school of Christian thought that refuses to believe God would just allow something to happen for the heck of it. Nope, I belong to that school of thought that says things happen because you either did something or didn’t do something. Good things happen because you’re good and bad things happen because you’re bad. The things that happen to us – good, bad, indifferent – are all consequences and all about us.

Unfortunately, that school of thought isn’t substantiated in Scripture. God had a long conversation with Job about that very matter that ended with Job acknowledging that God does what in the world He wants to do, when He wants to do it, how He wants to do it and to whom He wills, and our goodness has nothing to do with it. That would certainly explain why some bad people prosper and some really good people suffer; wouldn’t it?

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

I simply conceded to the fact that as strange as my circumstances appeared to me they made perfectly good sense to God and that was all that mattered. So I could be embarrassed, bewildered and even disappointed, but it had no bearing whatsoever on what God was doing in my life. Whatever His reasons, I had to trust that it would all work out for my good and that I’d understand it better in the by and by – if ever.

Also I thought that if I needed an explanation for the adversity, then I would ultimately need an explanation for the good times. I would never think to ask God “Why?” whenever He did something I deemed wonderful for me. And in His world, all things – miracles and adversities – work together for good, which makes them blessings.

God knows this was certainly a place I was unaccustomed to; it was foreign because I, like most human beings, thrive on the predictable and logical. But one of the greatest mysteries of God is that He often wills circumstances that truly can be characterized by another dimension in sight, sound and mind. And the yielded soul simply has to respect that and live with the outcome of His choices even if it’s in The Twilight Zone.