Is it Good or Bad?

My institute teacher shared this Chinese proverb that I have been thinking about a bit and I need to remind myself of it more...

A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

Sometimes we have a tendency to want to judge everything as it happens to us. In our limited view we ask, "Why is this happening to me?" or "Why is God doing this to me?" It is like when my mom reminds me that her cat has a pea brain and we need to be understanding when she doesn't seem to understand the world around her. It just doesn't make sense for us to get all worked up about things we have judged to be good or bad if we trust God. Even at the end of our lives I am sure there are going to be things that we don't understand. I like to believe that when this life is over we will see clearly why everything happed in our lives.

I can think of a couple of times when I was so frustrated that things didn't go my way. One example was when I finished beauty school I got a job 70 minutes from my home at the Aveda Spa. I couldn't find a place to live in that small town, so I ended up quitting the job before winter came. In the end I was glad I didn't find an apartment because it probably would have kept me from serving my mission. Because of many similar examples like this, when things fall into place in my life, I often feel like God has had his hand in it.

I also think about how poor we were growing up. I was always embarrassed about the clothes I wore, the holes in my socks, the car we drove and how cool I wasn't. Now I look back and think about how grateful it has made me for the things I have now. It has also made me work hard for the things that I have and not take them for granted.

The main question at hand is do we trust God and believe that he wants the best for us? If we believe this then we should be able to live in peace. This peace doesn't mean that everything will work out now, but it means that if we trust him, everything will work out in the end. I believe that this trust and our faith in him will be tested throughout our lives to great degrees. In the mean time, I'll just try to keep singing, "peace be still, peace be still."