It's a shaky bridge at best.
A man is traveling to a town. The trail takes him through a forest. It had been smooth going, but in the middle of the woods he comes to a fork in the path. He isn't sure which is the best way. One path is wider, but the other seems to turn more in the direction the town lies, so he takes it.
Perhaps that is true. But he doesn't really know. Perhaps the other path never came to the town. Perhaps a mile down that path he would have been mauled to death by a bear, or sunk into a pool of quicksand. He only knows one thing if he had gone down the other path it would have been different. Whether it would have been better or worse, he doesn't know.
We make many choices in life. Once made, they are made. We can only guess whether our choice was the best one, because we cannot know what would have been different if we had chosen the other.
Let me give a personal example. After I graduated from high school, I took a temporary job hanging samples of a new cleaner on doorknobs (Mr. Clean). This giant company (Proctor and Gamble) was doing field marketing. A small team of full time employees came to an area in these panel trucks. They hired local people to fill out their crew, college students on summer break, people like me, a high school grad looking for a job or others looking for any kind of work. We were driven to various sites and given a case of samples to hand out. After a few weeks, once the area had been covered, the local people were let go and the permanent crew moved on to another county or another state.
In the last week of my employment, the boss of the team called me aside. He told me he liked my work ethic and offered me the chance to join the permanent team. This would have meant I would have had a full time job and have the chance to travel all around the country. Maybe I could have worked my way up in this giant company.
But I was only just 18 years old and at that time you were not legally an adult until you were 21. To take this job, I had to have written permission from my parents. My parents didn't think it was a good idea and so I had to turn down the offer.
I don't know what my life would have been if I had taken it. What possibly could have happened to a young man traveling about the country with a group of other young men, being away from home for weeks at a time, maybe months, sleeping in motels and being in different towns and cities all the time?
I have no idea. I know some things that probably wouldn't have happened if I had taken that job. I would have never met the girl I married, never had the children I had and might have become a totally different person.
Think about that next time you look back toward the "If Bridge". You don’t know what you would have found on the other side, but think about what you wouldn't have that you do have. You don't know if things would be better or not. Don't waste your time then even thinking, "If only I..."
This is my advice for life in general, but it has a spiritual side, too.
(Matthew 7:13-14) Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
You make choices in life and there are many forks in the road. There is one choice you don't ever want to say, "If only I..." If you think you missed this path, then you go find it and take it. You may find that path has rough spots, but you need to be on the right path to get to the right destination, not the easy road to nowhere...or worse
And when you do find the right path, you will lead others to it.
I will lead the blind on roads they have never known; I will guide them on paths they have never traveled. Their road is dark and rough, but I will give light to keep them from stumbling. This is my solemn promise. Isaiah 42:16
DOWN THE OTHER FORK
There was a man traveling to the same town as the first. He came to the same fork in the road that entered the woods. He looked carefully at the two choices and choose the wider of the two. It looked as if it had been used more often. It was not only wider, but smoother. So off he went and it was indeed easy walking, so easy in fact that he decided to jog a while and cut some time off his trip. As he was running and humming he barely noticed that the road just suddenly disappeared over a cliff. He tried to stop, but his momentum carried him forward and even though he turned enough to try and grab the ledge he couldn’t get a grasp. Over he went.
If you read the comic strip “Beetle Bailey”, and I think it is still in some papers, you may recall Beetle’s sergeant often encountered this same problem. He would find himself tumbling over a cliff and somehow he always managed to grab a small tree growing out the side. Their he hung dangling.
Well, this is exactly the situation that happened to this man. Part way down the cliffside he managed to grab hold of a small tree, a tiny one really, and he was left dangling many, many feet above the distant ground, a precarious plight indeed.
So the man looked up toward the sky and he prayed…sort of.
“My God, my God, save me.”
He knew it seemed silly, but he shouted it again.
“My God, my God, save me.”
And a voice came down from above. It sounded a lot like James Earl Jones. “Do you believe I can save you, my son?”
“Yes, yes, just lower me a rope.”
“I’m God. I don’t need any rope.”
“Okay. What should I do?”
“Let go of the tree.”
“What? Are you outta your mind? Let go of the tree?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll fall.”
“No, I will save you.”
“How?”
“I’m God. Don’t you believe I can save you.”
“Well, yeah…”
“Then just let go of the tree.”
The man was silent for a moment. Then he yelled, “Is there anybody else up there?”
But there is no-one else up there. Sometimes we have to let go of our little trees and have faith in God.
The Lord will hold your hand, and if you stumble, you still won’t fall. Psalm 37:24
But sometimes when we think “If only…” we miss God and his salvation.
Just as God says in the Scriptures, “Look! I am placing in Zion a stone to make people stumble and fall. But those who have faith in that one will never be disappointed.” Romans 9:33
ALL THINGS WORK FOR THE GOOD
Besides those who say, "if only...” there are those who say, "I believe all things work for the good." It is usually used to either placate someone about a bad patch on the road of life or to excuse some foolishness committed.
"I insulted the boss and he fired me, but I believe all things work for the good, don't you? That's in the Bible somewhere, isn't it?"
First of all, I don't believe all things work for the good. Do you think the murder of six million Jews by Hitler's Nazis during World War II worked for the good? Do you think Herod having the Bethlehem boys two years old or under butchered worked for the good?
I certainly don't believe everything I've done in my life worked for the good. I don't believe everything that has happened to me in life worked for the good either. There are times when I though I was doing good, which really was bad and there were happenings that seemed very bad which did work for good. But not everything worked for the good.
If you are about to use that expression you should stop and examine the situation. You may be excusing misdeeds you need to ask forgiveness for or behavior you need to change.
When I was a teenager I went to a "Sock Hop" with some buddies. (For those not as ancient as I, a Sock Hop was just a school dance. Since most such dances were held in the school gymnasiums, they didn't want the floor scuffed, so everyone had to remove their shoes.)
Late in the evening, they had a Sadie Hawkins. (Again for those not as old as dirt, Sadie Hawkins was a character in a once popular comic strip called "L'il Abner." A Sadie Hawkins dance was one in which the girls asked the boys to dance.) A particular girl asked me to dance and I made some excuse and dashed out of the building. Why? Because the girl was considered homely and I didn't want to face the teasing that would come if I danced with her.
How could my behavior work for the good? I hurt that girl, who was a nice person, simply to avoid the ridicule of guys who would ridicule me for something else anyway. I know she asked me because I was considered a decent guy. So I shot that image, didn't I? And I have carried the guilt of it my whole life. I doubt my turning her down that evening improved her lot in life. She probably cried herself to sleep that night. So, not all things work for the good.
Yet it says all things work for the good in the Bible, right?
What it actually says in the Bible is this:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
It isn't all things that work for good. It is God who works for the good in all things and the good is for those who love him.
Yes, something seemingly bad can work to the good through the power of God, if you love Him and are called to his purpose. Do not think you can ignore God and expect life to be good.
So instead of blithely assuring yourself that all things work for the good, ask where you stand toward God. Things may be happening in your life that are guiding you to Him. If you come to Him, then he will work all things for your good. If you reject him...well you're on your own.
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