It's All Good

It's All Good by Steve Keeler

Romans 8:28

"And we know that God causes all things to work

together for good to those who love God, to those who

are called according to His purpose."

"Once upon a time." How long has it been since you

heard a story that began like that once upon a time?

Well, we're going to have one today.

Once upon a time there was a great and mighty king

who ruled deep in the heart of Africa. This man ruled

with complete power over his people.

Ever since birth he cherished one really close friend.

They had grown up together. His constant companion,

help and advisor.

This friend had an outstanding quality, he always

looked on the bright side of things. Whatever

happened, whether it seemed good or bad at the

moment, his friend would invariably comment "This is

good!"

One day the king and his friend set out on a hunting

expedition into the jungle. The king loved to hunt, it

was his favorite pastime.

His friend was always responsible for preparing the

ammunition and guns that they took along on their

safaris.

This time, however, something went terribly wrong.

When the king spotted his quarry and pulled the

trigger, the bullet exploded in the breech of the gun and

completely blew off the king's thumb.

Immediately, the friend wrapped a cloth around the

injury to stop the bleeding as the king howled in agony.

But then the friend committed a fatal error, he looked at

his wounded friend and remarked, "This is good!"

The king became enraged. This was too much. Many

times thru the years he had become irritated at

everything being described as "This is good!" Enough

is enough.

It only made it worse that his friend had prepared the

ammunition in a faulty manner. And then he had the

nerve to utter, "This is good!"

When they returned to their village the king had his

friend thrown into prison. Here in this horrible place he

stayed and his friend never once visited him there.

About a year later the king recovered sufficiently from

his injury to go hunting again.

This time he packed his own guns and prepared the

ammunition himself, and set off alone.

Unfortunately, the king didn't realize that a neighboring,

tribe of cannibals was also hunting nearby and they

were hunting for food.

Suddenly, the king was surrounded by hungry warriors,

they grabbed him and dragged back to their camp.

They tied him to a stake, began to boil water,

constantly poking him with sharp sticks.

Then one of them noticed that he was missing a

thumb. The drums instantly stopped. They untied the

king and forced him out of the camp. He ran home.

You may wonder why was he saved! Well, the

cannibals believed that eating anyone who was less

than completely whole would cause a terrible curse to

fall upon them.

When the king got home he finally remembered his

friend and immediately went to the prison to release

him.

He apologized and said, "You were right, it really was

good my thumb was blown off. That saved my life from

the cannibals. I'm so sorry I put you in prison."

Then his friend said, "No, going to prison was good."

The king didn't understand and asked, "How could

being in this stinky dungeon be good?"

The friend patiently explained, "If I hadn't been in jail, I

would have been captured by the cannibals too and I

unlike you would have been dinner."

That's my "once upon a time" story for you. But this tale

has some real lessons in it for us. In his own way, the

king's friend had found a way to rejoice in all things.

No matter how hard it may seem, as Christians we also

are supposed to rejoice in all things. We are to give

thanks for everything. In essence, like the king's friend,

we are to say, "It's all good!"

In Ephesians 5:19-20 we read, "speaking to one

another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

always giving thanks for all things in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father"

Believe me, I know that this is an extremely hard thing

to do. Sometimes we get sick or receive a bad report

from the doctor, a friend dies, all types of bad things

happen to us, how can we be expected to give thanks

for everything?

How can we always say, "It's all good!"

One thing that we must learn to do is be patient. We

need to make sure we give the Lord some time.

We should try to understand that although our

circumstances don't appear to be good at the time, we