Sunday Reflections

By Rev. Susan Schwartz

This is a tough question. Volumes have been written with answers to this one. My answer will not be as complete as what others have said, but I will give my own thoughts on the issue.

There is a very strong sentiment among some Christians, that by being a Christian, life is all going to be good: our bank account will always be on the plus side; our kids will be models of good behavior; everyone will like us; we will be healthy as a horse. You get the picture. Well, don’t believe it! Just don’t believe it! It just sets us up. Jesus said that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45). Life happens and nobody—not even Christians—get preferential treatment!

Yes, we all see Christians who appear to have it all together. They seem to be the perfect family: good job; financially stable, nice house, and have it all together. We may even point to them, in our heads anyway, as a model of the Christian life. Do they have their struggles? Do “bad things” happen to them? Sure, we just don’t know it. You may have seen the cartoon about the guy who tells God that his cross is too much to bear and God tells him that he has a room of crosses that he can pick from. So the man goes into the room and looks around. He sees crosses of all shapes and forms. He sees the cross that the neighbors down the street carry. Wow, he didn’t know it was that heavy. He sees the cross that belongs to the folks that are model Christians. My, he had no idea that their cross was so big. Finally, after walking around and around and around, he goes back and picks up his own.

Yes, some things are truly “bad.” There is just no way of getting around it, some things are just plain bad. You probably even know a few things that you would characterize that way. But some things may be “bad” in the moment, but later we may see them differently. Sometimes things actually turn out for the good. Father Mike, a friend from a Catholic parish in the Johnstown area, first told me this story about “good” and “bad.” There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. 

"Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"Maybe," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Maybe," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Maybe," said the farmer.

You know the disciples thought it was “bad.” Jesus was nailed to a cross. It was bad. Really bad. Maybe. But on the third day, they had a different perspective! We need to be careful about how we interpret life experiences.

The Rev. Susan Schwartz is pastor of in and in .