Working Out

Although my high school counselor warned me, "You're not really college material," it turned out that I actually have a knack for advance studies and degrees.  However, there was one class for which I was knackless: algebra.  I struggled through it barely able to pull out a B.  Compounding a brain that resisted the thought process required for algebra was a mindset that thought it unnecessary for the BA in Religious Studies that I was working toward at the time.

Unnecessary as I thought it to be for my studies at the time, I knew it was required to complete the degree so I dug in and came out with a passable grade thinking how glad I was to be through that useless class.  That was in my freshman year.  In my senior year, when I was taking a class on formal logic, I found not only was there a need for algebra in my studies, I was quite happy I had dug in and gained something from it.  Algebra was not the ends but the means to an end.  As painful as it was while I was going through it, just barely pulling out a B, it allowed me to excel in formal logic, which I found stimulating and useful; and for which I received an A grade.

What I didn't fully understand as a freshman was that all the classes I was taking in my course of studies was working out for the advancement of my education, whether I saw it at the time or not.  Each class and each project laid a bit of the foundation that would one day allow me to complete a doctorate in ministry.  More to the point, each class I was taking "was working out," not had worked out or would work out but "was" working out.  In the moment I was going through it, despite the difficulty and distain I felt in the process, my good was being worked out.

That is precisely what the apostle Paul was saying about the path we travel under God's watchful eye.  Despite how difficult or distasteful or demeaning or disturbing or dumbfounding a particular point in our life might be, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28).  God "works," not has worked or will work but "works," present tense.

I'm not saying God causes everything that happens to us as "a man reaps what he sows" (Gal 6:7) or that everything that happens is good in and of itself as the Lord would not need to work something good out for our good as it is already good.  Sound good?  Good grief!  Some things we endure are truly the "trials" James speaks of that we are to "consider as pure joy" (1:2).  They are not welcome, they are painful and tiresome but they work to "mature and complete" us as God works out those things for our good.

You may be facing a trial right now.  If you are not, hang on a minute, one is heading your way.  Life is filled with valleys and turns that throw us off and challenge our forward motion.  Some of these trials seem to be too much for us to handle but then there is God.  They are not too big for our Lord to handle.  And, if you are of that group that loves the Lord, he is already working it out for your good whether you see it now or not.  Jus' Say'n.