The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and saying, "This is good!" One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail. About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this." "No," his friend replied, "This is good!" "What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?" "If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you."Last week the A/C went out in our house. The heat was stifling, but thankfully my sister had a window unit we could borrow to cool the downstairs for a few days. Today I got to see an old friend who I worked for nearly twenty years ago. He fixed my A/C and only charged me $270 vs. the over $600 that a local company wanted to charge. Just being around him took me back to a time when I was younger, stronger, and had few responsibilities. Today things are different. I am older, hopefully a little wiser - and my life abounds with responsibilities. Now I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but it felt nice to talk about simpler times. So it was good that the air conditioning went out in our house. Sure the last few days were inconvenient, but our mini-crisis created a circumstance that allowed me to reconnect with an old friend. Whenever things seem to go bad, just remember, God might be getting ready to do something good in your life.
CAP
Illustration provided from Sermon Central
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