Bad = Great

Something that I have realized, but can never fully understand in the moment is that what seems bad at the time, God will often turn into something great.

For instance, last weekend, I learned that my youth pastor, my spiritual hero (minus Jesus and my dad, of course) would be leaving the staff at our church. Needless to say, I was absolutely devastated. I cried for a day and a half. Who would teach us? Who would take us to Peru? I felt desperate, and I hated it. Things were never going to be the same. I'd never see him again.

Over time, I realized that all of this was an extreme exaggeration. His family is good friends with our family, I babysit his daughter. Of course I'd still see him. I can be excited for him now! He's taking a job at Show Hope, where he will help students be involved in orphan ministry, and I get to help him develop the program! I might get to go on mission trips with him to orphanages! How cool is that!?!?

What I thought was so horrible for the moment, God used to bring about something so great I could never have imagined it! Through this change, my youth pastor will touch hundreds of teenagers and get them involved in caring for orphans! And I get to help!

Even when things seem like they couldn't get worse, be encouraged that God will turn it around, and show you how beautiful He can make a bad situation.

A Bad Case of Hospital Overload

There are many things in this world that I dislike. Let's list a just a few.

1) Pickles

2) Punky kids

3) Stuck-up government officials

4) HUMORLESS, STONE-FACED, UNFEELING, FLOOR-FIVE-OF-VANDERBILT-CHILDREN'S-HOSPITAL DOCTORS!!!

You guys remember my baby brother, right? The cute, baby one? Yeah. Last Tuesday he had...

Open-Heart Surgery

Yep. They sliced open the chest (sawing through bone and everything) of a two-year-old boy. And the surgery went great. Yep, everything healing up just fine. Except, oh yeah, his heart isn't beating well enough. He's on an artificial pacemaker right now. They're giving him until Monday for his heart to start beating or they're permanently inserting the pacemaker. At first it was , "Oh this is relatively normal. It will probably start beating within two days." And then it was four days, then six, then a week. They said it could take up to two weeks - and it has. I feel like everything that could go wrong with his recovery, is going wrong. He even pulled out his feeding tube!

And the worst of it is... the doctors are SOOOOO unfeeling!!! My dad kept trying to crack jokes on the doctor to lighten up the surgery atmosphere, and she was totally not buying it. She just sat there, all business, with that cold, hard face, unmoved. And they would NOT sedate that baby boy so he could get some sleep!!! It was ridiculous!!! My mom would try to sit him up and he would just flop over he was so tired. INCONCEIVABLE!!! So I came to the conclusion that those nurses and doctors had a bad case of...

Hospital Overload

They've seen so much horrible stuff happen at that hospital, that they just don't want to interact with any of the patients or the patients' families because they're afraid something will happen to them and the pain will be all the worse. Not to mention they're sterile, dull feeling of the place. It's ALL white. And the lights are all fluorescent and weird and... they just make me shiver. Whenever I go there, I feel extremely deprived of sunlight and the outside world. I mean... Little Man's only been there for a week and I've had enough hospital for a LIFETIME.

But then, I guess it's not all bad. Lot's of good stuff happens at hospitals too. Lives are saved, broken bones healed, all sorts of stuff. But, even so, let's just say I'm NEVER going to medical school. That's one career choice that forever had a giant red X over it.

First Day Back

So you just had two weeks plus some off of school. You slept late, hung out with friends, saw some extended family, and got some presents. And then it drops like a bomb on your ride.

School's back.

It's a truly depressing thought. Back to waking up early, annoying teachers, and homework.

This morning you probably woke to your bleeping alarm. You probably pressed the sleep button and hunkered back down, eyes closed, curled up in your blanket. Then it totally rained on your day when, five minutes later, it went off again. You groggily got dressed and brushed your teeth. Maybe you took a shower or ate breakfast. And then, whoops, you totally missed the bus and you're very ticked mom has to drive you to school. In Social Studies class, you got unfairly called out for not paying attention. That minor project in Science just slipped your mind. At lunch, you spilled chocolate milk on your favorite white t-shirt. And to top it all off, you bit the dust and did a face plant on your way out the building.

That's a pretty bad day, if you ask me.

So the question is, what do we do about days when nothing goes right? Well, let's see a few examples:

Example #1:

When Jacob got home from school that day, he sulked. He sulked and sulked and sulked. He pushed his brother, snapped at his mom, and back-talked his Dad. During dinner, he didn't join in the conversations. Instead he sat and moped and played with his food. At the football game, he missed every single throw. The way he saw it, that was just one more thing to mope about in his horrible life. Finally, his dad said he'd had enough of this sulking and that Jacob was grounded until he had a better attitude.

Example #2:

Emily sat and stared at the mound of homework that she had. Teachers weren't supposed to give this much homework right off the bat, were they? But, she guessed, the homework wasn't going to do itself. Emily sat down with a snack bar and a bottle of Coke and started to work. It took her a long time to accomplish it, but she did anyway. She didn't want to go to the football game either. But she had signed up for the cheer squad, and it was her responsibility to be loyal to her squad. They didn't even win the game, but Emily was glad that she'd cheered for them. If they had no support, how would they win anyway? Her parents congratulated her for doing such a good job.

So what was the difference between Emily and Jacob? Only their attitudes! The difference was how they saw the situation. That's all it takes to turn a bad day into a good one! Now, that can be the toughest thing in the world to do sometimes. But you should at least try. No one wants to hang around a mopey, pessimistic person anyway.

Now, I've done my fair share and more of sulking and moping. And, more often than not, I crumble when my life gets hard. But you can always pray for God to give you a better attitude. And don't think that after you pray you'll suddenly be happy and everything. You have to work at it. You have to struggle every second to find the good side of a situation. And even if you can't find the good in something, it's probably just hiding. Remember...

God always means for things to happen. And they're all good. Maybe we just can't see it yet.