Many of us recently heard about yet another Christian book publisher being acquired by a larger publishing house. This reflects on the direction of the industry in general, but it also impacts a lot of individual lives. One of the employees of said publisher is a dear friend of mine, who now has 50 days of employment left. That’s the bad news for her. The good news? Her amazing attitude.
“I always loved an adventure,” she said, “and I can’t wait to see the one God is going to take me on now.” I love that, don’t you? Talk about taking lemons and turning them into lemonade? And this lady is no twenty- or thirty- or even forty-something. She’s at a place in life when it’s a bit tougher to land a job, but she knows it’s not up to her to make that happen. Instead she is patiently and even excitedly waiting on God to take her to that next season in her life.
Isn’t that how we all should live, regardless of our circumstances? Isn’t that Romans 8:28 in real-life? “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (NKJV). All things—not a few things, or some things, or most thing. All things, even (and maybe most especially) the really tough and challenging things that we all face at one time or another. And for His purpose, not ours. That’s the secret. My friend knows she walks this earth to serve his purpose, not her own, and that’s why she can face this new “blip” on her radar screen with excitement rather than despair.
I pray we will all take that scripture to heart and put “feet to our faith” the next time we too are faced with a “good news-bad news” situation.