So a story is told by Christian speaker – Lee Ezell…
..of a farmer who lived and worked on his farm along with his son. One day, their only horse that they had used to do most of the farm work disappeared. They were quite editurbed about this and a neighbor came by and muttered at how terrible the situation was and how sorry he was for their misfortune. The farmer simply turned to him said, shrugging his shoulders, “Is it a good thing or is it a bad thing?” Puzzled, his neighbor retorted, “Well of course it’s a bad thing!”
“I guess we’ll see then, time will tell”
A few days later, and to the utter amazement of the farmer and his son, their lost horse returned, bringing with him, a herd of wild horses. They were able to capture and start training them in order to accomplish more work on the farm. The neighbour was amazed too.
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That same month, while the son was training one of the wild horses, he got thrown of it’s back and wound up in hospital with a number of broken ribs. Again, the farmer’s response to the neighbour’s pity was, “Is it a good thing in or is it a bad thing?”
A number of weeks passed and war broke out and young men were being shipped off on compulsory conscription. To the farmer’s great relief, his son was not fit enough to be conscripted because of the broken ribs. And yet again the neighbor was amazed… “that was probably a good thing then” he said with a wink.
If we look at our current situation, and ask "Is it a good thing or a bad thing?". We won't always know the answer that question immediately. And we often tend to assume the worst of every negative situation we find ourselves in. But we never know what the future holds and our depressing conditions can often lead to our protection or success in the future - but when we look back in hindsight – we see it. The key here is to hold on to hope in the midst of the bad situation even if we don't know what the outcome will be.
"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." ~ Genesis 50:20
