Sunday’s Food for Thought : Seeing things beyond today
We all constantly experience ups and downs in our lives. And while we’re still in this world, none of us can truly be exempted from life’s difficulties.
The Bible writes how a good and honest man like Joseph seemed to have not been ‘blessed’, at least not in ways that we normally would expect. He was sold as a slave, and he was thrown to jail too.
Joseph loves God but yet in the eyes of our world, he was unfairly treated.
If we only look at parts of Joseph’s life, and not as a whole, we will never understand God’s wonderful plans. It is only when we look at his life as a whole that we can see and find out God’s guidance.
A good song can’t be thoroughly understood and enjoyed if we only hear a few seconds of it. To understand how grand and wonderful a particular symphony, we must listen to it from start to end.
The same thing applies when we’re observing a painting. To understand its beauty, we need to stand back and look at the painting as a whole, not focus on just a small part of it and enlarge that particular part with a magnifying glass.
This is how we should look at our life as well. We should look at it as a ‘whole’.
When we experience difficulties today, don’t be quick to complain and ask, ‘Where are you God?’, because God’s reply will most likely be, ‘You wait and see. i am the Master of history. I am the One who care and guide you throughout your whole life.’
Let’s put our life and our trust in Him, who is the Giver and Source of life.
Hi Adeirra,
I’m touched by your sharing. Thanks for writing.
I feel I’m in no position to even understand what you’re going through. But if I may, I’d like to share a few things here with you:
– None of us is perfect – I for one am far from it – and we can’t be like Joseph too … I’d like to always learn from characters whose lives have gone through struggles though … who in the end managed to go through the storms with God’s help and strength
– Many people may not be able to see my situation and the struggles we go through here – with work, with the kids, with life in general.
We do go through lots of struggles, but I guess so far we can still go through each and everyday with a smile because my husband and I choose to just live our life day by day, learning to see how and where God will take us, not forgetting to do our best in our efforts, and praying to see if our moves are in line with His plans or whether we need to change our direction so that it is according to His ways.
Now that I have my own kids, I can see how Anya doesn’t always trust that I have my own ways for her because it’s the best for her. She complains and feels that I’m not giving to her what she wants and hopes (despite my explanations).
But the thing is, as a mother, I know I don’t allow certain things because it’s for her own good. I love my children, but I know they may not always understand my plans for them.
Now that I’m a mother who sees the behaviour of my own kids, I can sort of understand – a liiiittle bit – how God might see me as His child too.
I don’t know if what I’ve shared help you in one way or another. I’m no better than anyone … I’m just learning from life every day
Take care Adeirra … God loves you. He really does.
dear leony,
my name is adeirra. i’m a loyal reader of your writings. i never gave comments because mostly i only like ‘just reading’.
these past three years i’ve been experience some hard part in life. i cried constantly for help from God every night. but the worse things always manage to happened instead of good ones. even until today.
i always ask God for help, what should i do, believing that He will answer soon and show me what good will come on my way as exchange of pain that i felt. as a silver lining after all the pain i feel.
but no matter what i do, things gotten worse and worse. no matter how many hope i built, nothing matters anymore.
today, a worse thing happen again to crashed my hopes and dreams. the only one i ever wanted.
i envied all of happy people out there, including you. on one hand i get mad and mad over God, but on the other hand, i have no one to ask except Him…
13th June is my birthday, and somehow i got drawn into your web, explore your writings and came on to your writing about ‘seeing things beyond today’. call it coincidence, but it just attracted me…
from my point of view, i see God already crashed my most deepest dreams and only hope. i see God as not wanting to hear prayer from people like me. i see my voice as so low that God will not even want to hear glimpse of it…
i tried to be numb and focus my attention to something else to overcome my grief. or see other happiness in other category of life that i accepted. or considering how lucky i am to still have other that some people might not have.
but that just running away.
eventually when i’m alone with my thought, i comeback to where i am. all the grief and question about what should i do? should i forget my own dreams? but how if i end up blaming others because i decided to not ‘get stubborn’ and follow my own dream? or should i keep on hoping and dreaming so God will know how persist i am and maybe decided to give me one?
what should i do? how am i supposed to look at all part of the paintings? how can i if i’m so blinded by the pain? how can everybody else so happy and have their dreams came true? including you..
anyhow, i’m no joseph. i dont have a heart as big as him…
i’m sorry, leony… but real thanks for your writings. it’s like a gift for my birthday. in a perfect moment and time.