When you walk with God there are no coincidences or fatalities, but everything is in His plan, and then all things work together for good.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
A few days ago I was listening to a radio announcer commenting that he had a terrible weekend. Everything went wrong.
And there are days when it seems better not to have gotten out of bed, and in some cases, there are even whole months.
I remember when I was a child there was an event that, if it weren’t so serious, would be comical.
We were on vacation at the mill where my maternal grandparents worked, and one day, as my grandmother was leaving the main building she tripped and fell. There were three steps and the ground outside was paved with boulders because loads of wheat were still coming in on mules.
My grandmother fell from the top of the steps and hit one of those stones. This caused him to be shocked and knocked out for a few minutes, as well as a gash on his forehead that began to bleed profusely.
And I, who was the only one who saw it all, instead of approaching to see if I could help, I started shouting, “it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me”.
Fortunately my screams alerted my parents and grandfather and they attended to her immediately.
The truth is that I had been having a season in which many things had broken. Maybe because my curiosity led me to get into places I shouldn’t and to observe everything. And of course, to observe better, sometimes you had to pick things up, or move them aside, and they had the bad habit of falling down.
The thing is that when something appeared broken, all eyes turned to me. And since they were usually right, I didn’t mind taking the punishment.
But this time I didn’t want to take a punishment that I didn’t deserve and that, given the severity of the consequences, I estimated would be considerable.
Thank God my grandmother recovered well, and it was made clear that I had nothing to do with the incident.
And no, if you think that after that I stopped getting into trouble you are very wrong. But I did learn something, I had to be more careful not to break so many things.
Since then I have continued to research and learn, and not only have I become somewhat skilled at not breaking so many things, but I became an expert at maintaining and fixing them.
So it seems that the passage in Romans, chapter 8 and verse 28, the one that says: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, was fulfilled.
However, I seem to be back to my old ways. With the difference that now I don’t break things, now I seem to break myself, well me and my circumstances.
Many of you know José Ortega y Gasset’s phrase, “I am me and my circumstances”, alluding to the fact that not everything that happens to us is under our control. Because a simple unforeseen event can ruin the most careful of projects.
Although the truth is that the phrase is a little longer and goes like this: “I am me and my circumstance, if I don’t save it, I don’t save myself”.
So, in a way, this man encourages us to try to understand and change our circumstance in order to help ourselves.
It sounds reasonable. However, the concept contains an important trap. The word “circumstance” comes from Latin and literally means “that which surrounds us”.
If we apply this to the previous sentence, the philosopher is telling us that if we act on the environment we can change our self.
And it is true that if we take care of our environment we can have a better world, but those things do not help us to be better people.
For the truth is that, as Jesus teaches us, it is not what goes in, but what comes out of the person, that contaminates.
Therefore, although we Christians take care of the things that surround us, as a sign of our stewardship towards what we have received from God, our efforts should be focused on taking care of and changing our inner self, with the help of the Holy Spirit. For only a heart and mind renewed by Christ can help us on the path to eternal life.
So do not be afraid of circumstances, nor let yourself be discouraged by them, because if you love God, if you walk in His will, every circumstance that God allows in your life is one more step towards your final victory in Christ.
For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God..
God bless you.
En el Valle de Sombra de Muerte
A lo largo de nuestras vidas, todos vamos a pasar por valles de oscuridad y dolor.
Pero la Palabra de Dios da ánimo, y nos muestra cómo seguir adelante en dichos momentos, y vencer.
