All things work together for good… do they really?
This particular question crosses my mind every now and then, but this time around it was a little different.
I know the scripture “All things work together for good” very well…
I mean, I’ve heard it like what now, a MILLION times?
Yet, this time around, the thought that challenged that ‘promise’ caught me at the peak of frustration.
My frustration?
This very business, DTruest.
But let’s dial things back a bit so that you can get a better scope.
I started DTruest based on revelation.
God had shown me the potential of what it could become and the impact that it would have…
Being the obedient child of God that I try to be, I ran with the idea.
I imagined that the gap between starting the business and the promise I was given wouldn’t be as long, but man was I painstakingly wrong…
Heavy on the painstaking.
For starters, getting this company off the ground was a challenge to say the least, because there were problems left, right, and centre.
Everyweh mi tun…
… problem.
… Chaos.
… Utter foolishness.
At one point (and if I’m really being honest with myself– at many points) I had to ask myself if I had imagined everything on my own, because things got so bad that I ended up in a state of deep depression (that’s a story for another time).
Fast-forward to now, things had settled a bit…
… But now, tell me why there’s been an onset of issues again, one after the other?
When one problem comes, I’m saying “no problem. I’m standing on the Word and I’m persevering”…
Then the next one comes mid-way handling the first issue…
ok, this isn’t SO bad…
Then another issue, and another, and… that’s right, another.
And if things weren’t bad enough already, THAT’S when the thought decides that now is the perfect time to cross my mind…
“Do all things really work together for good, Tiffany?
Look at all these problems.
You know, you really don’t have to do this.
All they’re doing is frustrating you and making your head hurt.”
Ain’t that the truth?
Because I don’t have to do this… but I kinda want to…
Nevertheless, wanting to doesn’t dismiss the fact that I am frustrated and my head does hurt…
And I won’t lie, sometimes the weight of it all really does make me feel like regressing…
Not in the sense of turning away from God per se, but to go back into my shell… where it felt safe(-ish).
I had all these thoughts bundled up in my heart when I went to church for a mid-week session recently.
‘Coincidentally’ (I put that in quotes because I understand all too well how God operates… especially in moments like these), one of the ministers at the session spoke on how the process of building can be painful…
… and immediately, I started to retreat within myself.
I felt called out and seen…
… and the tears that welled up in my eyes was my witness to that.
He stressed how painful building is because to build something means that another thing most likely has to endure a crushing… a pressing… before we can bring forth the thing that’s actually supposed to be.
Then, of course, being a minister of Christ’s church, he went on to mention the iconic line…
“All things work together for good…”
As I began to shut down after having to hear those words…
Those painstaking words… for what felt like the billionth time now… I heard another voice completing the verse before I could completely shut down…
“… for those that love God. For those that are called according to His purpose”.
It wasn’t the minister that said that.
He had ended at the usual part everyone would…
But I knew that gentle Voice anywhere.
God decided that it was now time – after I had heard the message delivered by the minister – to concretize His Word.
As the latter part of that scripture taken from Romans 8 vs 28 fell on my ears… then came to rest on the soil of my heart… I recalled that love hurts sometimes.
Love hurts because it’s sacrificial.
Love hurts because it’s unconditional.
It hurts because it bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things…
I for sure would know that after being married for some time now.
The challenging times my husband and I faced in the past (and I’m sure there’s more to come) have bloomed into something beautiful… because we chose to let love prevail.
This time, what God was drawing a parallel to is that it’s no different.
I have seen where all things have and will work together for good because of my love for God.
The promise wasn’t that all things will work together for good full stop.
The promise wasn’t that all things will work together for good regardless.
No.
The promise is essentially that God is able to take the downright ugly, messy, confusing and/or frustrating situations and make them blossom into something beautiful if we allow our love for Him and His love for us to prevail…
… because we’re called to a purpose.
Through my few years on this earth, I’ve come to understand that to be called to a purpose means that there’s a PROBLEM to be addressed…
… And that problem won’t just lie down and let you remove it.
It’s going to exert some resistance.
It’s going to feel like all hell is breaking loose at times…
It’s going to make you feel as if you’re out of your league sometimes…
But all things work together for good for those who love God. For those that are called according to His purpose.
Aren’t you called?
Don’t you love God?
As much as I struggle at times I know I am called and I know I do love God…
So I will continue… as much as it’s hard… to persevere
And I’ll continue to choose to love God… so that I can see the good that will come from Him continuing to choose me.
~ I hope this word does a work in you as it did for me.
Your sister in faith,
Tiff FR.
