It’s Monday, October 28, 2018.
Mr. Sony Setiawan and his colleagues from the Indonesia Ministry of Finance are set to fly from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang. It’s a routine flight for them.
Traffic was unusually heavy that morning. He usually gets to the airport at 3 am but he ended up arriving at 6.20 am just as the flight they had booked was taking off.
He missed his flight by a few minutes. Luckily, he secures a different flight and proceeds with the journey hoping to catch up with his colleagues.
Back in Jakarta, tragedy struck.
Lion Air Flight 610, the plane Mr. Sony had just missed, crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff killing all the 189 people onboard including his colleagues.
He got the tragic news upon landing. It was bittersweet for him: he was happy to have escaped death but sad for the lost lives including his colleagues.
I wonder what Mr. Sony’s initial reaction was when he learned that he had missed his flight.
Missing a flight can be devastating. So, he must have felt frustrated and perhaps blamed himself for the delay. But his frustration would soon turn into relief and joy, very glad he missed the flight.
Something good came out of a bad situation.
I see glimpses of such redemptive goodness in our experience as believers.
Whether it is the painful consequences of indulging in sin, hitting dead-ends as a result of trying to help God or disobeying His direct directions, or just life’s pains and suffering, you name it, all of us go through difficult patches in life that take a toll on us.
We end up feeling devastated and frustrated. It may grow into self-condemnation and if we see no way out, we might be tempted to give up.
However, as with Mr. Sony, God Has a way of working good things out of these bad situations.
Yes, even those bad situations you knowingly but stubbornly got yourself in.
God gives a crown of beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3). He can turn a curse into a blessing, mourning into rejoicing, mess into a message, and certainly, graves into gardens.
See, God’s judgment is usually restorative. It is always laced with mercy and grace.
That explains why David opted to fall into God’s hands rather than to be judged by man (1 Chronicles 21:9-15).
Ishmael’s account
If you doubt, ask Ishmael (Genesis 16:1-16).
Yahweh promised to give Abraham a son. When the promise ‘delayed’, Abraham activated plan B which resulted in the birth of Ishmael.
All was good until the child of promise –Isaac- came. They couldn’t and wouldn’t coexist (Galatians 4:21-31).
Ishmael had to go. Despite Abraham’s reluctance, he eventually sent him and his mum away.
But that wasn’t the end of his story.
Later in Genesis 37:28, we meet the Ishmaelites, descendants of Ishmael. They are the instruments God chose to take Joseph to Egypt.
In the fullness of time, Joseph would be the lifeline for his people (i.e. the descendants of Isaac) when drought ravaged Canaan.
In a sense, God used Ishmael to rescue Isaac.
The illicit child rescued the child of promise!
The curse had turned into a blessing. The mistake became a gift.
Think again
You think you have messed up so bad and God will never accept you back let alone use you?
That the mistake is beyond remedy?
Or that the pain is pointless?
Think again.
God can turn those seemingly bad situations into stepping stones for greater things. He can work out something beautiful out of the ashes of your failure.
The never-disappointing hope in God can come out of the suffering (Romans 5:3-5), and purpose out of pain.
In some instances, mistakes and difficult times have given birth to ministries.
You can help others overcome like you have. Now that you have been to the depths and back, you know how it feels and you can share the lessons that got you out of it.
That’s what Paul calls comforting others with the comfort you have received from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Friend, don’t write yourself off.
Don’t abort, dear sister. You don’t know what will become of that baby.
Don’t kill yourself over that great mistake, dear friend. That bad situation might be the start of something that will shape generations.
Let not the pain make you give up. In the fullness of time, it will make sense.
We can go on and on but you can be sure of this. God can work a very good thing out of that bad situation.
All you need to do is to give God the ashes so that He crowns you in beauty.
Fall into God’s hands. His arms are always open waiting to receive bruised reeds, smoldering wicks, and prodigal sons.
Ps.
If you want to sin knowingly so that God can work something good out of it, then you have missed the point. This article targets people who are already in sin/ error or going through a difficult season.
While you have a choice to or not to sin, if you choose to sin, you cannot choose the consequences of the sin. Sin comes packaged with consequences, many of which you will never know until they come. Don’t be the guinea pig, you better walk in the straight and narrow.