You know, when someone mentions a year or a time period and you mentally start to calculate where you were and what you were doing in that season of your life?
No, my thoughts immediately went to a more personal place. In 2017, I was still teaching middle school. There was a specific solo trip I took during spring break that year that was a marked moment in my life. A trip where the Lord spoke to me about my future and what it would look like. A trip that left me craving what He’d shown me, and also a bit nervous about how any of it would come to pass.
2017 was also before I met someone who would cause a lot of pain and heartache for me personally. The kind of hurt that left me reeling in the ‘after,’ struggling for years to try to marry what I’d seen on that solo trip with the reality of the person I thought I knew.
Before and after.
Marked moments when things shift so significantly that our lives before feel very different than our lives after. When the before version of us is completely unrecognizable to the after. Sometimes it feels great, and sometimes it feels absolutely awful. But for the believer, it will always be for our good.
Marked moments when things shift so significantly that our lives before feel very different than our lives after.
One of my favorite things about God is His steadfastness. That He is not slow in keeping in His promises, as some would believe. But that He is faithful in drawing us in, leaving no one behind, as His plans unfold. As Jeremiah taught us, He knows the plans He has, even when we don’t.
And He knows the caliber of character required to execute those good plans drawn up to give us hope and a future.
The person I was in 2017 couldn’t handle what God showed me on that solo trip to the Bay Area (where, by the way, I sat courtside at Oracle Arena to witness the greatest NBA team ever assembled beat their NorCal rivals…but I digress…). I proved that I couldn’t handle it when I met that person in 2018 and began five years of trying to create what God had shown me.
The spiritually mature person knows that we can’t create what we see in dreams and visions; at best, we can only agree with the Creator while He brings the vision to reality. But I couldn’t have learned that lesson before if there hadn’t been a hard-fought after.
But for the believer, it will always be for our good.
If Job were sitting here today talking to us, I think he’d have a few things to say about this topic. Not the least of which is that if it passes through the Father’s hands, you can expect redemption. Possibly even a double portion. And I think Job would want us to know that for it to get to us – to the children of God – it has to pass through God’s hands first.
If Paul were to pull up a seat at this table, I think he’d remind us that all things work together for the good of those who are called according to God’s purposes. He’d probably have a lot to say about how we interpret that verse, too, not the least of which is our propensity to forget the article ‘the.’ That little word changes everything.
The spiritually mature person knows that we can’t create what we see in dreams and visions; at best, we can only agree with the Creator while He brings the vision to reality.
See, the process of going from ‘before’ to ‘after’ may not feel good to us. But that’s ok – it’s for THE good, not MY personal good. ‘The’ good’ can only be defined by the one writing the script, or in my case, revealing the vision. If it were ‘my good,’ then my feelings would determine the scale of goodness. As it stands, feelings have nothing to do with it. This goodness is based on outcomes, not process.
So the ‘after’ is still good – maybe even double portion good – even when the process of getting there feels really, really bad. Just ask Job.
And if for some reason, you find yourself stuck somewhere between before and after, or maybe your ‘after’ feels more like the aftermath (mine certainly did for a while…), there’s something I want you to cling to:
This isn’t the worst it’s ever been.
This isn’t the worst things have ever been.
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