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I have continued to reflect on the extreme strange circumstances that we have all had to face this year. I said strange, because for those of us in this age, it is quite strange. But it was not quite strange for those who lived through the flu pandemic. However, because they lived through that age, and the strange circumstances they experienced that time, we in this age are able to relatively live with the flu almost as a routine disease. I can imagine that people who live 50 years from now will look back at the experience garnered from this troubled time as a blessing for them and the breakthrough on the current pandemic. I have said all this to point to a fact that our present circumstances may be blessings in disguise. This reminds me of an article I wrote a while ago which I revisit again below.
Many times, we experience blessings that are not disguised. This had caused me to meditate over the ratio of our blessings that are disguised and ones that are not and a picture formed in my mind. The picture I am getting is that when I examine my life, I realize that I have had far more incidents of good things happening in my life than bad things. It is easy for me though to concede that the bad circumstances, when they happen seem to command more of my attention. Thinking again, I realize that the bad things seem to occur less frequently. I have also noticed that my worst experiences have, by far, been the debilitating fear I have of bad things happening to me. A loved one is sick, and I begin to fear that he/she might die. I go for a job interview and for one reason or the other I begin to feel like I might not pass the interview or be accepted for the job, and so many other fears like these. The fear of getting into a bad circumstance is like torture and this is in spite of the knowledge that our Lord has not given us a Spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). Another thing that is noteworthy is the fact that, so far, I have managed to recover from whatever circumstances I have found myself in in the past.
These experiences tend to support the notion that there is more good than bad in life; the bad is not as bad as fearing the bad; and we can recover and live happily in spite of the bad circumstances. One can then surmise that our fear of bad circumstances may actually get in the way of enjoying the blessings of God which far out-number the circumstances. InRevelation 2:10 (KJV) the Bible says “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So, our experiences in life may have more to do with where we focus our mind and our heart than the bad circumstances that happen in our lives. If we, however, orient our heart in the right direction, the joy of the blessings of God will definitely be our portion again.
I have heard many people say that being happy is a choice. The revelations here do support that fact. Focus on the good things God has blessed you with and you will have a far more exceeding joy than if you concentrate on the trying experiences you have. According to Elizabeth George, in her book “Loving God with all your mind”, we must train our thoughts to think the truth about our experiences and focus on living life one day at a time. Our recollection of our bad experiences in the past should be for only two reasons. Either because we want to thank God for having brought us through or because there were some lessons we learned from those experiences we need to put to use. Our experience of life usually has more to do with what we focus our attention on than it does with the events. One bad thing might happen, but ten good things are all around you. If you only see the one bad thing, then life is bad. When you are in the midst of a bad thing, you will experience pain and difficulty, but it won’t kill you. In fact, many great things come from bad times. Bad circumstances are often the precursor to positive change and personal growth. There is a choice we always have to make in the course of our life journey and that choice is either to be a victim of our circumstances or to be victorious over our circumstances. The choice to be victorious is the choice to be happy. My brothers and sisters, let us choose to be happy despite our circumstances as we refuse to succumb to the fear of bad circumstances.
– Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
