How we perceive things can have a dramatic effect on our
whole outlook of life. In modern society, we are brought up to believe that
this is good or that is bad. It’s good to exercise, it’s bad to sit on your
backside all day watching television.
While this may or may not be true, depending on your
viewpoint, when we take this to a deeper level it can be problematic. If you're
continually thinking that when this happens, it is good, but when that happens,
it is bad, you're always trying to avoid the bad and embrace the good. This
adds to stress, and modern living alreday provides us with enough of that to be
going on with.
The truth is bad stuff happens to good people. There is
no avoiding that fact. But what constitutes good and what makes something bad?
Indeed, if you crash your car on your way to work in the
morning, it is bad. But if the person you crash into gets out of their car and
the two of you instantly fall in love, get married and live happily ever after,
it is good.
To quote an old Sunday School verse I heard many years
ago, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’
A few years ago, I was going through a particularly rough
patch. A lot of ‘bad stuff' was happening, which made my life seem unbearable.
I sat down with an old man I had only met once or twice
before, who became one of my closest friends, and he shared a story with me
that helped me immensely.
It’s an ancient Chinese proverb, and it goes something
like this.
Once there was an old fisherman. He had a son, who the
old man relied upon to mend his nets and take his catch to market.
One day the son was out in the countryside when he found
a beautiful white horse. The son brought the horse to his father and said,
“Look, father, what I have found. This white horse will help us take the fish
to market.”
All the people in the village came to the old fisherman
and congratulated him on his good fortune.
To their amazement, the old fisherman replied, “Who knows
what’s good, or what’s bad?”
A few days later the son was out riding the horse when he
fell from his steed and broke his leg.
This time all the people in the village came to the old
fisherman to commiserate with him about his misfortune.
Again, to the astonishment of the people, the old
fisherman said, “Who knows what’s good, or what’s bad?”
A week passed, and the King's men came to the village to
conscript all the young men into the army. There was a great war, and the King
needed all the young men he could find to stop the country being invaded by the
enemy.
The King’s men came to the old fisherman’s house, but
when they saw the son with his broken leg, they said, "This man is no use
to the King, ride on." So they left the old fisherman and his son in
peace.
Six months passed and word reached the village that
although the King had won the war, all the young men conscripted from the village had been
killed.
So the moral of the story? Who knows what’s good, or
what’s bad?
Never take things on face value. What you think is
terrible now, might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened.