"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." 
Romans 8:28 is a well-loved verse that I remember often, and this morning I was delighted that I found a fun illustration for it:

Does this look a bit like pictures you drew as a kid? Sometimes our lives are like that.We have this picture of how things should be in our lives. Then "Bad Things" happen. Things don't go according to plan.

There is a fun little game the kids would play in church, where we'd bring little note-sized scratch paper and something to write with. The game starts with one of us drawing some random things on the page, then hands it to someone else, challenging them to make a picture out of it. Sometimes we even have an idea in mind when we hand them the scribbles.

As you can see, this doesn't quite fit the idea of a house-tree-sun scene. I think that Romans 8:28 is kind of like the picture challenges. We have our life's plan pictured in our minds... we have ideas about how things should go. Then life hands us squiggly lines and random shapes and they simply don't fit our plans. They might even ruin them.
But we can take our messed up lives and hand them to our Creator and Master Artist, and be amazed by what He can do with our lives.
So get to know God better, love Him and put Him first in everything, and watch as God's plan is allowed to unfold in your unique life, in special ways made just for you.

Another take on "Why do bad things happen to good people"

Today my teenage daughter was crying. She was harboring an imagined hurt from the day before, and in fact had been somewhat playful earlier in the morning. It struck me that she wanted to feel bad. She probably had multiple motivations and may not have understood one of the sources of her sadness, but I started thinking about her situation.

This is not the first time I have seen someone dredge up an old imagined hurt and dwell on it. Apparently some people need a certain amount of pain in their lives and if they don't get it they'll create it or imagine it, or mine their memories for it.

So I laughed to myself when I considered that some people for whom everything seems to go wrong might just simply be suffering an addiction to complaining.

But I'll mostly keep that to myself. There are plenty of people who quietly endure some hardship, and I don't want to dishonor what they go through with my silliness. I always hope for the good things, but if it's the best way to "git 'er done" I humbly say, "let the hardships come".

God sees the sparrow fall

Sometimes we wonder how God can keep up - with so many praying and talking at once, each at their own pace, with millions of simultaneous requests, some in urgent life-or-death conflicts, and at the same time someone else sharing their thankfulness in the bliss of a summer breeze or an inspiring cloud formation.

But more often I wonder instead how He can slow down to our speed, fall into step with us, actually care about and love us, with so much else going on. Yet He can and does.

The Psalmist wondered as well (Psalm 8:4-6):

⁴ What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
⁵ For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

He created us in His image, we are indeed very special to Him. But it's more than that even. "What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it." (Matthew 10:29) (and "The very hairs of your head are numbered..." is there too...)

"Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:24)

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." ( Isaiah 55:9)

I know there are more. Some day these things will be clearer - "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) - I'm definitely looking forward to that explosion of awareness, or eternity of learning.