Suffering doesn't mean you made a bad decision

Have you had a good week so far? What about a good year? As you look back over your life, would you say you've had a good life?

Once you answer those questions, answer the more important one: how did you define "good"?

If you're like most people, when you thought about whether you had a good week or not, chances are you defined it in terms of whether it's been an enjoyable or productive week.

We live in an age where everything good is interpreted in terms of happiness and success.  To be blessed means to be happy and successful. In fact, if a follower of Jesus does not appear happy or successful, we wonder what is wrong with them.

This is shallow Christianity.

The difficult truth we face is although God is good and his instructions are good, he does not always lead his children into paths that many would consider to be happy and successful.

Was Jesus happy? Depends how you define it. He was absolutely filled with joy and the other fruit of the Spirit, thus was content, and I'm sure he had many moments of laughter and delight. But the prophet Isaiah reminds us he was also a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I'm not sure the modern world would call his life a happy one.

Was Jesus successful?  Not by our standards, nor the standards of his time.

We likely grasp the fact that suffering is a part of life - one cannot be human and not experience times of intense discomfort. I have experienced suffering due to my own decisions, the decisions of others, and sometimes the randomness of life circumstances. And it's true that even in these times, the goodness of God will take what others inflict on us (or we inflict on ourselves) and use it to shape our character, strengthen our endurance, and bring about his purposes for us.

However (and this is a big one), God sometimes leads his children to do things that involve them in great distress. I can attest in my life of listening to and following God, there have been times God led me down a path that involved suffering, and then said, "I want you to persevere until I say otherwise."

For example, coming out of college I got my first job in a church. I felt God led me there. But it took all of one week for me to realize I hated it. I dreaded coming to work. Yet when I prayed about it, I felt like God was telling me to stay for one year.

I ended up staying for 14 months, learned much, and now am thankful to have been there, but not a week went by where I didn't wish to be somewhere else. The job was good for me, but it definitely didn't make me happy. Yet God led me there.

In fact, because God does not think as we think or act as we act, it is often in these situations of suffering that he accomplishes his greatest victories and brings his greatest blessings.

Which means, if God has allowed tragedy or difficult times to slip into your life, this does not necessarily mean that you made the wrong decision when you took that job or married that person or made that commitment. To be in a good place does not mean you have to feel happy or look successful. It means you have to be in the place God has led you to be. 

"Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
    how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him."

~ Psalm 34:8

PAUSE and REFLECT: Let's go back to the original question: have you had a good week so far? 

We now know the measurement of that answer is not how much we've enjoyed the week. You can have a difficult but good week. You can have an unproductive (by your standards) but good week.

If you've had a week that has stretched your patience, the world may say "Unsuccessful" because you should have belligerently demanded better results from others. But perhaps Jesus says, "Successful" because you grew in grace.

If you've had a week that has been emotionally difficult, the world may say "Not good" because you weren't happy, but perhaps Jesus says "Good" because your suffering brought you closer to him and helped you experience his compassion.

The path to being fully alive can be compared to working out. To have had a good workout does not necessarily mean it was super fun or you hit a PR of some sort. A good workout means you've sufficiently stressed your muscles (not fun) or stretched your endurance (not fun) to have a positive effect on your health.

Similarly, the path to being fully alive involves things that "work out" and strengthen our character, our relationships with God and others, or our emotional wellness. It could be that you are in a season of "work out" right now.

And that's good.