Its All Good

During good times and bad times, my wife will often respond to "how are you doing?" with "its all good."

Sometimes I think she is lying. I can see it in her eyes.

The pastor at church today gave an illustration from Romans 8:28 today. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

He talked about how he LOVES chocolate cake. He went on and on about the wonders and beauty of chocolate cake.

Then he had a table set up with lots of ingredients - flour, sugar, eggs, etc. There were 10 ingredients in his cake recipe. Eight of the ingredients were putrid when eaten by themselves: the raw eggs, the flour, the baking soda, vegetable oil, the coco (or is that cocoa?)... you just could not stand to eat these things. The butter is ok, but it is not all that appealing. Sugar is pretty tasty by itself.

I was not paying super close attention to the direction of the sermon, so I was prepared to yawn at another illustration on diversity and how different people with different backgrounds and gifts can come together to make something wonderful in the body of Christ. How nice.

That was not his point. His point really blew me away and it spoke to me on a very deep level.

Earlier he had asked if we really believe that ALL things work together for good for the believer. How about cancer? miscarriage? divorce? sickness? losing a job? ... yes.. yes...yes.. of course they do... I noted mentally (as it turns out, I had the right answer).

How about our sin? How about the times we disappoint God? Does that work for good in the believer? well... maybe... but not THAT sin... not MY vice(s). That's something bad. In fact, that is something that is hindering God's work. If I could just stop being such a jerk and if I could just dispatch of my personal vices, God's good... maybe God's better or best... could be accomplished in my life.

ALL things.

The wonderfully amazing chocolate cake - the chef's best - is accomplished by using 8 bad things, 1 not so good thing, and only one really good thing. The master chef can take a lot of putrid ingredients and by his skill and knowledge create something heavenly.

How much MORE can God (the master, creator, and sustainer of the entire universe) take all of our putridness, a little mediocrity, and very tiny amount of good and create something heavenly.

I struggle with this.

How can God use MY ingredients?

Does he KNOW me?

He DOES know me. He can and will (continue to) use me.

He is the Master Chef.

When He is done... it is GOOD.

My wife is not lying when she says "its all good," she just has a long term perspective. She has God's perspective.

I am glad she sees me through God's eyes.

Its all good.