CHAPTER 9

WHEN GOD’S STORY BECOMES YOURS…

ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD

THINK ABOUT IT!

What genre is the story you’re in right now? Is your life a romantic comedy or a horror story? Are you the hero of a great adventure or the damsel in distress? Maybe it’s a sports film or a war movie or a documentary in which everything is always “real.”

Here’s a secret: You can almost always change the genre to whatever you want it to be just by changing your attitude toward your everyday circumstances.

Those convinced the world is out to get them will see every bad thing that happens as the next chapter in their own personal slasher film. People who believe there is no plan for the universe, no Storyteller, may simply see the events of their boring, everyday existence as so much documentary footage that needs to be edited into whatever context they decide matters to them.

But those of us who are convinced that God is writing our story, that he is up to something in the universe and has cast us in the role of helping to accomplish his purposes, will see our stories as the grandest of adventures even on the worst days. We will always be asking, “How will this moment lead to the good ending I know God is writing?”

Lloyd — I was a week from going on a vacation to Sea World, [and] I was anxious to get to San Antonio. I was over at my grandparents when my grandfather got a call from my cousin that my great-aunt had died leaving the hospital. The vacation was called off. I was heartbroken that we were going to a funeral instead of vacation. I lost sight of the truth; blinded by anger and sadness, I felt lost like there was no one there.

ROBBEN ISLAND CONSISTS OF THREE SQUARE MILES OF windswept land off the southern tip of Africa. Over the centuries it has served as the home for a prison, leper colony, mental asylum, and naval base. Most significantly, it was the home of one of the most famous political prisoners in history, Nelson Mandela.

He opposed the South African apartheid, a system designed to extend the rule and privileges of the white minority and diminish those of the blacks. It ensured that the 14 percent minority would control the rest of the population. Under apartheid, blacks were excluded from the “whites only” buses, “whites only” beaches, and “whites only” hospitals. Blacks could not run for office or live in a white neighborhood.

Apartheid legalized racism.

Mandela was the perfect man to challenge it. As a descendant of royalty, he was educated in the finest schools. As the son of a Christian mother, he embraced her love for God and people. Under the tutelage of a tribal chief, he learned the art of compromise and consensus. And as a young black lawyer in Cape Town, he experienced “a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments,”27 which produced an inward fire to fight the system that imprisoned his people.

By the mid-1950s, Mandela was a force to be reckoned with. Passionate. Bitter. Given to retaliation. With his enviable pedigree and impressive stature (six feet two inches, 245 pounds), he was, for many, the hope of the black culture. But then came the events of August 5, 1962. Government officials arrested Mandela, convicted him of treason, and sent him to prison. For the next twenty-seven years, he stared through wired windows. And he wondered, surely he wondered, how a season in prison could play a part in God’s plan.

You’ve asked such questions yourself. Not about your time in prison but about your time in a dead-end job, struggling church, puny town, or enfeebled body. Certain elements of life make sense. But what about autism, Alzheimer’s, or Mandela’s prison sentence on Robben Island? Was Paul including these conditions when he wrote Romans 8:28?

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.

We know… There are so many things we do not know. We do not know if the economy will dip or if our team will win. We do not know what our parents are thinking or what career we will pursue. We don’t even know “what we ought to pray for” (Romans 8:26). But according to Paul, we can be absolutely certain about four things. We know…

1. God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray, within the fury. He hasn’t checked out or moved on. He is ceaseless and tireless. He never stops working.

2. God works for the good. Not for our comfort or pleasure or entertainment, but for our ultimate good. Since he is the ultimate good, would we expect anything less?

3. God works for the good of those who love him. Behold the benefit of loving God! Make his story your story, and your story takes on a happy ending. Guaranteed. Being the author of our salvation, he writes a salvation theme into our biography.

4. God works in all things. Panta, in Greek. Like “panoramic” or “panacea” or “pandemic.” All-inclusive. God works, not through a few things or through the good things, best things, or easy things. But in “all things” God works.

Puppet in the hands of fortune or fate? Not you. You are in the hands of a living, loving God. Random collection of disconnected short stories? Far from it. Your life is a crafted narrative written by a good God, who is working toward your supreme good.

God is not slipshod or haphazard. He planned creation according to a calendar. He determined the details of salvation “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20 NKJV). The death of Jesus was not an afterthought, nor was it Plan B or an emergency operation. Jesus died “when the set time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4), according to God’s “deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23).

God, in other words, isn’t making up a plan as he goes along. Nor did he wind up the clock and walk away. “The Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will” (Daniel 5:21 ESV). He “executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75:7 ESV). “The LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intentions of his mind” (Jeremiah 30:24 ESV). Look at those verbs: God rules, sets, executes, accomplished. These terms confirm the existence of heavenly blueprints and plans. Those plans include you. “In him we were also chosen,… according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

This discovery changes everything! It changed the outlook of the mom Denalyn and I visited in the maternity ward two days ago. She had miscarried a child. Her face awash with tears and heart heavy with questions, she reached through the fog and held on to God’s hand. “This will work out for good, won’t it, Max?” I assured her it would, and reminded her of God’s promise: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ “ (Jeremiah 29:11).

The apostle Paul’s life is proof. We know just enough of his story to see God’s hand in each phase of it. Here is how Paul began his testimony: “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today” (Acts 22:3 NKJV).

Paul grew up in Tarsus. He called it “an important city” (Acts 21:39 NLT). He wasn’t exaggerating. Tarsus sat only a few miles from the coast and served as a hub for sailors, pirates, and merchants from all sections of Europe and Asia. Any child raised in Tarsus would have heard a dozen languages and witnessed a tapestry of cultures.

Tarsus was also a depot city on the Roman highway system. The empire boasted a network of roads that connected business centers of the ancient world. Ephesus. Iconium. Derbe. Tarsus. Syrian Antioch and Caesarea. While young Paul likely didn’t visit these cities, he grew up hearing about them. Tarsus instilled a Mediterranean map in his heart and a keen intellect in his mind. Tarsus rivaled the academic seats of Alexandria and Athens. Paul conversed with students in the streets, and, at the right age, became one himself. He learned the common language of his day: Greek. He mastered it. He spoke it. He wrote it. He thought it.

Paul not only spoke the international language of the world; he carried its passport. He was born a Jew and a Roman citizen. Whenever he traveled through the empire, he was entitled to all the rights and privileges of a Roman citizen. He could enter any port and demand a judicial hearing. He could even appeal to Caesar. He was treated, not as a slave or foreigner, but as a freeman. How did his father acquire such a status? Perhaps in exchange for tents. Paul, himself a tentmaker, likely learned his craft from his father, who probably created durable gear for the ever-mobile Roman soldiers.

Young Paul left Tarsus with everything an itinerant missionary would need: cultural familiarity, linguistic skills, documents for travel, and a trade for earning a living. That was only the beginning.

Paul’s parents sent him to Jerusalem for rabbinical studies. He memorized large sections of the Torah and digested massive amounts of rabbinical law. He was a valedictorian-level student, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Paul later wrote: “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14 ESV).

An interesting side note. Paul and Jesus may have passed each other on the streets of Jerusalem. If Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin court when he persecuted the church, he would have been at least thirty years old, the minimum-age requirement for being a member of the court. That would make him roughly the same age as Jesus, who was crucified in his early thirties. Which raises this fanciful question: Did young Paul and young Jesus find themselves in Jerusalem at the same time? A twelve-year-old Messiah and his father. A young Saul and his studies. If so, did the Christ at some point cast a glance at his future apostle-to-be?

We know God did. Before Paul was following God, God was leading Paul. He gave him an education, a vocation, the necessary documentation. He schooled Paul in the law of Moses and the language of Greece. Who better to present Jesus as the fulfillment of the law than a scholar of the law?

But what about Paul’s violence? He confessed: “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women” (Acts 22:4 NKJV). He tore husbands from their homes and moms from their children. He declared jihad against the church and spilled the blood of disciples. Could God use this ugly chapter to advance his cause?

More than a hypothetical question. We all have seasons that are hard to explain. Before we knew God’s story, we made a mess of our own. Even afterward, we’re prone to demand our own way, cut our own path, and hurt people in the process. Can God make good out of our bad?

He did with Paul.

“Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me…”

—ACTS 22:6–7 NKJV

“I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine.” “Back to the dust with you, you Christian-killer.” “Prepare to meet your Maker!”

Did Paul expect to hear words like these? Regardless, he didn’t. Even before he requested mercy, he was offered mercy. Jesus told him:

“I have a job for you. I’ve handpicked you to be a servant and witness to what’s happened today, and to what I’m going to show you.

I’m sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see…. I’m sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven, and a place in the family.”

—ACTS 26:16–18 MSG

Jesus transformed Paul, the card-carrying legalist, into a champion for mercy. Who would have thought? Yet who would be better qualified? Paul could write epistles of grace by dipping his pen into the inkwell of his own heart. He’d learned Greek in the schools of Tarsus, tentmaking in the home of his father, the Torah at the feet of Gamaliel. And he learned about love when Jesus paid him a personal visit on Damascus Highway.

“All things” worked together.

Bethany, 15 — I was in an accident this year that really did change my life. I hit my head and lost memory of literally everybody I knew. I was mad at God for a really, really long time. Slowly, over time, my memory came back. That whole experience made me realize how much I put everything in my memory before him. So he literally swiped it all away and set my priorities straight. Now my life revolves around mission work. Best thing that ever happened to me.

I saw an example of this process in our kitchen. My intent was to chat with Denalyn about some questions. She was stirring up a delicacy for someone’s birthday. She assured me she could talk and bake at the same time. So I talked. She baked. But as she baked, I stopped talking.

Had I never witnessed the creation of cuisine? Au contraire! I’ve applauded the society of Julia Child since I was a child. We who do not cook stand in awe of those who do. And I did.

Denalyn buzzed about the kitchen like the queen of the hive. She snatched boxes off the shelves, pulled bowls out of the pantry. I’ve been known to stare at an open refrigerator for days in search of mayonnaise or ketchup. Not Denalyn. She grabbed the carton of eggs with one hand and butter with the other, never pausing to look.

She positioned the ingredients and utensils on the table as a surgeon would her tools. Once everything was in place, off she went. Eggs cracking, yolks dropping. Shake this, stir that. Pour out the milk. Measure the sugar. Sift, mix, and beat. She was a blur of hands and elbows, a conductor of the kitchen, the Cleopatra of cuisine, the da Vinci of da kitchen, the lord of the lard, the boss of the bakery.

She popped the pan into the oven, turned the knob to 350 degrees, wiped her hands with a towel, turned to me, and said the words I longed to hear: “Want to lick the bowl?” I fell at her feet and called her blessed. Well, maybe not. But I did lick the bowl, spatula, and beaters. And I did wonder if Denalyn’s work in the kitchen is a picture of God’s work in us.

All the transfers, layoffs, breakdowns, breakups, and breakouts. Difficulties. Opportunities. Sifted and stirred and popped into the oven. Heaven knows, we’ve felt the heat. We’ve wondered if God’s choice of ingredients will result in anything worth serving.

If Nelson Mandela did, no one could blame him. His prison life was harsh. He was confined to a six-by-six-foot concrete room. It had one small window that overlooked the courtyard. He had a desk, a mattress, a chair, three blankets, and a rusted-iron sanitary bucket for washing and shaving. Meals came from corn: breakfast was a porridge of corn scraped from the cob; lunch and supper consisted of corn on the cob; coffee was roasted corn mixed with water.

Mandela and the other prisoners were awakened at 5:30 a.m. They crushed rocks into gravel until noon, ate lunch, then worked until 4:00 p.m. Back in the cell at 5:00, asleep by 8:00. Discrimination continued even in the prison. Africans, like Mandela, were required to wear short pants and were denied bread.

Yet God used it all to shape Mandela. The prisoner read widely: Leo Tolstoy, John Steinbeck, Daphne du Maurier. He exercised daily: a hundred fingertip push-ups, two hundred sit-ups, fifty deep knee bends. Most of all he honed the capacity to compromise and forgive. He developed courtesy in all situations, disarming even the guards who had been placed to trouble him. He became particularly close to one jailer who, over two decades, read the Bible and discussed Scripture with Mandela. “ ‘All men,’ Mandela reflected later, ‘have a core of decency, and… if their heart is touched, they are capable of changing.’ ”28

After twenty-seven years of confinement, at the age of seventy-two, Mandela was released. Those who knew him well described the pre-prison Mandela as “cocky and pugnacious.” But the refined Mandela? “I came out mature,” he said. He was devoted to “rationality, logic, and compromise.” Journalists noted his lack of bitterness. Others observed that he was “unmarred by rancor.”²⁹ Within four years Mandela was elected president and set out to lead South Africa out of apartheid and into a new era of equality.

God needed an educated, sophisticated leader who’d mastered the art of patience and compromise, so he tempered Mandela in prison.

He needed a culture-crossing, Greek-speaking, border-passing, Torah-quoting, self-supporting missionary, so he gave grace to Paul, and Paul shared grace with the world.

And you? In a moment before moments, your Maker looked into the future and foresaw the needs and demands of your generation. He instilled, and is instilling, within you everything you need to fulfill his plan in this era. “God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing” (Ephesians 2:10 NCV).

If that doesn’t take the cake, I don’t know what does.

Morgan — God has played a pretty big role in my life. So far. I have gone to church ever since I can remember. I feel like through the trials of my life I have gotten closer to him—though my trials aren’t very big on the spectrum of “bad things” that could have happened. But for me, these were the hard times in my life. In some way we will eventually be able to use all of our experiences to further his kingdom or to reach out to people; yes, the bad things happen, but they are there for good. God has an amazing way of using the worst situations and things that have happened for good and growing in the end.

DON’T JUST SIT THERE…

Write out Romans 8:28 on a piece of paper. Ask yourself and answer honestly, “Do I believe God works in my life? Do I believe he works for my good? Do I love him? Am I called for his purposes?” If you said no to any of those questions, talk to a wise Christian you trust to try to figure out why.

Thank God that he is now and always has been at work in your story, for your good, in everything that has happened and will happen to you.

If you have never read The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (or if it has been a long time), consider reading it soon. Notice how Aslan is at work in the lives of the heroes even when they are not aware of it.

Text Romans 8:28 to two or three Christian friends and ask if they think it’s true for their life. When they respond, text back, “Why?”

If you know someone who has been through something terrible that you would never want to experience and yet still seems to trust God and enjoy him, ask that person about this verse. Why does she believe it?

Make a quick list of two or three of the worst things that have happened in your story so far. Circle the ones you are sure that God helped you through and that he was using for your good.