Friday, November 14, 2008

What is Bad?

What is good versus what is bad can only be defined by how we think we will be individually and ultimately affected by what is happening. If we really looked in depth, we would realize that what is bad, is created in our own minds. The only way we could possibly determine whether something is bad would be if we could foresee the end results. A very simple example can be illustrated through sports. When the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship, it was a good thing and people were happy. However if you lived in Dallas and were rooting for the Mavericks, it was a bad thing and people were upset. Oh yeah, and if you lived in Kansas you probably didn’t care either way. Based on how each group thought they would be affected, they determined whether the event was a “good thing” or a “bad thing.”
So how can one event be a good thing, a bad thing, or “no thing” all at once? The answer is that it can’t. It is just an event, neither good nor bad, just an event. That example is simple but powerful because so many people can have their entire mood change and their lives affected from the results of one sporting event. Life is too important and short to be affected by something so trivial.
Here’s a more powerful example. My dad died when I was thirteen and that was a bad thing that happened to me and my family. Or was it? Originally I perceived this to be the most horrific thing that could have happened to me. I spent many nights asking God why he would do this to me. It is only now that I realize that with my father’s death, many great things have happened in my life. My wife, my children and the way I look at life, are all direct results of his death. In short, I am who I am today, because of his death, not inspite of it. I am not suggesting that everything that happens will feel good. I am only suggesting that if you look back at your life, many of the things that you thought to be so horrible at the time, turned out to be good things. In the end when we look back with the benefit of knowing the conclusion, everything will be good.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

4 comments:

lourdesweider said...

hi alex, i have read everyone of your daily dumbbells and im hooked. thanks for sharing them with all of us. abby

Alex said...

thank you, and don't forget to sign up to follow this blog.

Kiki said...

What a wonderful perspective, especially from someone who has lived it.

Rom 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God."

Alex said...

Thanks, I hope this perspective gives you the same comfort it has given me.