Murphy's Law

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Sometimes life stinks. Things don’t go our way. Murphy ’s Law engages and it seems that anything that can go wrong does. Why does God allow such things? If He is such a benevolent God, why does anything have to go wrong?

First, let’s get some perspective. We must admit that in order for things to make a turn for the worst, things must not have been as bad before the turn. In order to get the perspective that something is “going wrong” it must have been “going right” for a while. What do you know? Things haven’t always been bad.

Second, let’s look at a caterpillar. It lives its life in relative comfort munching on leaves and other caterpillar delicacies, then one day spins a cocoon and takes a super-long cat(erpillar)-nap. Then one day it awakes. It feels trapped and needs out. It feels abandoned by God. It struggles and struggles. It goes through the worst situation it has ever faced in its entire life. Then it finally breaks free – as a beautiful butterfly. It is no longer confined to munching on the plant it was munching on before, but now has freedom to go anywhere. It has the power of flight. It is much more beautiful. In short, its life is vastly improved.

Do you know what happens if someone helps the butterfly by cutting it out of the cocoon – even at the right time, when it is breaking free? It dies. The struggle is an essential part of the process. It is required for the butterfly to have the ability to survive as a butterfly.

Your life is the same. Look back on some of the hard times in your life. Now look at character values those situations gave you: patience, strength, endurance, etc. The hard times in life are the times we grow the most. Although you may not know the purpose, God has a plan behind it. Trust Him.

When life sucks raw eggs and everything seems down, remember these three things: 1) It hasn’t always been bad, 2) hard times produce the most growth and are necessary to build you into the person you need to be and 3) God is working out a plan for you that gives you hope and a future.

God forgets; People don't

Jeremiah 31:34 (NIV)
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the Lord.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

God's forgiveness is complete. He not only forgives us for the wrong we've done, but He chooses to not even remember them. In His eyes, you are perfectly clean, just like His son.

Our memories, however, stay in tact when we've been hurt. Even if forgiveness has been given you still remember the offense. This is by design.

Since God is omnipotent (all powerful), we really have no power to bring any harm to Him. We can disappoint Him and grieve Him, but we can't hurt him. However, humans do a great job of hurting each other. Even after you forgive someone, they can hurt you again and again. For this reason, God allows us to remember the offense. We have been given this gift so that we don't continually put ourselves in compromising situations that will allow us to repeatedly get hurt from the same injuries. In short, this is a gift of learning.

By learning from our mistakes and knowing who we can trust, it minimizes the chance that we will allow the same person to hurt us in the same way again. Unfortunately, there is a down side to this remembering. It also makes trust a commodity that is difficult to regain. If you are hurt, you are more likely to be cautious to guard yourself from being hurt again. Forgiveness is irrelevant at this point. Self-preservation requires that some trust be withdrawn and reliability be proven before it is restored.

When someone doesn't trust you because of something you've done in the past, remember that you need to show yourself reliable and trustworthy in order to regain their faith in you. New memories must be built to override the old memories. Trust must be built...slowly...and steadily...with care to be trustworthy in the smallest of details.

I hope this encourages you.
I love you for free!