Tom Once upon a time, there was a man who owned a beautiful mare. However, one day the beautiful mare ran away and the friends and family of the man came and said to him,
“Oh, your mare ran away, that’s a bad thing…”
The man replied, “How do you know?”
Not long after, the mare returned with a majestic stallion. So now the man has both a beautiful mare and a majestic stallion. His friends and family came and said to him,
“Oh, now you have both a mare and a stallion, that’s a good thing...”
The man replied, “How do you know?”
One day, the man’s son was out in the field and the stallion kicked the boy, breaking his leg. His friends and family then came and said to him,
“Oh, your son’s leg is broken, that’s a bad thing…”
The man replied, “How do you know?”
Not long after, a war broke out and the government officials were scouring the country for able-bodied young men to fight in the war. The man’s son was not enlisted because of his broken leg. His friends and family then came and said to him,
“Oh, your son will not need to fight in the war, that’s a good thing…”
The man replied, “How do you know?”*
Well, the story can technically go on forever. But the main point about this story is that whatever is happening in our life, we do not know whether it is necessarily good or bad. Only God knows.
*Excerpt of story by Pastor Nate Holdridge, Calvary Monterey.
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Once upon a time, I was a student in a local university hoping to do my student exchange overseas. However, as you probably know, these student exchanges are expensive, particularly in Europe. Hence, I applied for an University grant that provided about $1000 SGD per month. As my grades were quite abysmal at that time, I didn’t even try for another sponsorship that offered $2000 euros per month (or about 4 times more due to the 1 euro:2 SGD exchange rate then).
When the application results was released, a couple of my friends received the University grant but unfortunately I didn’t. Then I asked God why I didn’t receive the grant if he wanted me to do a student exchange in Europe? How would I be able to afford it?
At this point, I probably believed that God didn’t want me to do the student exchange.
But it was also a “How do you know?” moment…
Given, that I had no other options, I turned to the more prestigious sponsorship – one where only friends with excellent results received. Long story short, I eventually received the higher sponsorship and at the end of the 6 months exchange in Europe, I actually even had savings. The experience in Europe also set up my academic life in the ensuing years – a very good thing that came from a seemingly bad situation at first.
So if you are encountering a difficult or challenging time today, hold on. God can turn a bad situation into a good outcome.
And if you ask me “How do you know, Tom?”
Well, I don’t. But I have experienced it before and I wish the same for you too my friend 🙂
