Some of my kids like roller-coasters and some don't. It seems I don't enjoy them as much as I used to, but I will do it to have fun with them. Something I noticed about all coasters is they go up and down, take all kinds of twist and turns but ultimately arrive back at the station safe, hopefully!!! This is exactly what God does with the issues of our lives. They may go up and down but we will arrive home safe, certainly! Ecclesiastes 3:11 declares, "He has made everything appropriate in its time."
The song says: "I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden." Neither did God, so beware of "rose garden" theology. The Christian life is not an either or experience, where either you're a believer and life is problem-free, or an unbeliever and life is tough. It's a both and experience, bringing times you'll enjoy and times you'll endure. The Bible's heroes experienced both the thrill of victory and the sting of defeat, some, like Elijah, even wishing to die.
Consider the paradoxes of God's Word. Jesus was a "man of sorrows" (Isa 53:3).
Yet He was also "anointed...with the oil of gladness above (His) fellows" (Heb 1:9).
Paul said he was "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing...poor, yet making many rich...having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2Co 6:10 NKJV). These were his thoughts when he said, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Php 4:13 NIV).
In Proverbs 17:22 (NKJV) Solomon says, "A merry heart does good, like medicine." In Ecclesiastes 7:3 he says, "Sorrow is better than laughter: for by sadness...the heart is made better." In Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NAS) he writes, "In...prosperity be happy...in...adversity consider - God has made the one as well as the other."
Rejoice! In our both and world, God is still on the throne. He's controlling the mix of joy to sorrow, peace to conflict, loss to gain, want to satisfaction, tragedy to triumph, with our best interests always foremost in His mind.
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