walking – Sharon O'Connor

“Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People…

by Sharon

… like you?”

Published August 10, 2024

You know that quote about, “Daughters are little girls that grow up to be your best friends”?

Today I went for a two mile walk along our local Rail Trail with two of my best friends. They have grown into beautiful young women whose friendship I respect and treasure. I stepped back to take a photo and watched them move ahead of me on the tree-lined path. Something in our relationship as a mother and daughters has shifted. They walk confidently ahead or beside me, instead of being led by me. It is a comfort. I enjoy being with them. I like them. More than just a little.

One of them said last week, “I’m enjoying these normal days. I don’t want them to change again.” Planned surgery is not really what any of us would have ordered for our August itinerary. And yet, we all know change is a part of life. What I don’t want to change is their enjoyment and pursuit of God.

We headed back to the car and saw a friendly acquaintance from church. Waving hello, we chatted and he kindly said, “I was just talking about you in our group at work. We were talking about why bad things can happen to good people, like you.”

I had heard this before over a decade ago when I woke up from exploratory surgery with a stage 3 cancer diagnosis and a colostomy. People who loved us wondered why, how, what was God doing? We did, too. My conclusion then has not changed. I can just say it with more certainty.

“Well, we live in a fallen world. Bad things will happen. But God is still able and in control.” We conversed a little more and then we went on our separate ways.

There is a website I find helpful on the question of why does God allow bad things to happen to good people, and it speaks to this question. Read the full article by clicking here.

The last paragraph on this web page says, “God allows things to happen for a reason. Whether or not we understand His reasons, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful (Psalm 135:3). Often, bad things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. Instead of doubting God’s goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6). We walk by faith, not by sight.” – Excerpt from https://www.gotquestions.org/bad-things-good-people.html

Part of being ready for this upcoming surgery has been my wanting to help prepare my family, especially my daughters. I’m so very proud of the way they have stepped up, worked through tough emotions, and have stepped with me, with us, towards this next thing. Whether it’s something concerning or just surgery + recovery and moving on, we’re all trusting the God who will never, ever, change. Do you know Him?

To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable. – Helen Keller

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. James 1:16-18

Sharon's Journal

Called to Hope

by Sharon

*Saturday morning mindset while relaxing and drinking coffee or tea*:

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

*Monday morning mindset looking at the list of to-do’s for the week*:

“My sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.” – Robert Frost

Which quote can you relate to above?

Are you invigorated this year with the change to a crisp fall, sunshine filtering through falling leaves, and the cozy happiness of all things autumn (pumpkin spice coffee lovers, rejoice)? Or do you struggle with those subtle change-of-season-blues that are real for many people? If you know, you know.

Maybe you’re like me and can relate, some seasons, to both. Last year I walked in our familiar misty woods on paths covered in foliage. This year we moved. A big change. A lovely provision from God. The new scenery is just as beautiful in its own way. I walk my dachshund pup on a country road surrounded by pastures, curious cows, and a stoic blue heron that swoops away up the creek nearby.

I think about seasons and situations and how God works through them all.

Illness.

A big life change – a precious new baby, new marriage, adjusting to an empty nest, or a new job.

The loss of a loved one.

Global upheaval.

An unknown future.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.”

I think Heraclitus is not wrong in terms of this world . . . but hold onto your pumpkin spice coffee just a minute and stick with me.

Hebrews 13:8 assures us that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.”

If we have a relationship with Christ Jesus, even in a rapidly changing world, we know our future. We are secure in him and our future is good. Our unknowns, our sorrows, our dreams and joys are filtered through powerful, personal, hope. Whether we’re in a sunny happy pasture-place in life, or feel like we’re walking down a misty hidden lane, as believers, our spiritual footing is secure.

God offers hope freely, day to day, month to month, season to season. There is enough for you, too.

Here is a passage from Ephesians 1:15-23 that I journaled recently. I’m holding onto these truths hiking into the end of October:

¹⁵For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²²And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

If autumn quotes aren’t quite resonating with you this year (or even if they are – some of them are a lot of fun!), the promises of God’s Word, friend, are always true. Let’s get to know God and his promises better. We’ve been called to hope (read that as a noun) every day of the week!

Would you like to know more about true Hope? Comment or message me. I would be honored to share the hope available in every season, in every “pasture or path” of life, that only comes from believing in God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Are you worried about the future? Struggling with a personal or spiritual issue that’s causing anxiety, uncertainty or fear about tomorrow? You can browse through dozens of topics and questions and begin your journey to a more peaceful life right now at Peace with God (https://peacewithgod.net/)

Sharon's Journal

Like a Lily

by Sharon

I couldn’t tell you a day lily from goldenrod the first spring we lived at our previous home surrounded by fields and woods. A day lily would bloom and would be welcomed like an old friend by my neighbor. The goldenrod was relentlessly hunted and picked and discarded preferably before it could bloom and cause allergy issues.

After a decade of living on that property, I learned to coherently identify many of the plants in the woods. Some I dehydrated for teas and tinctures. My favorite forest path led me by a patch of day lilies. The plants were tucked in a small clearing at the bottom of a shady hill. On warm summer nights deer would lay in the high grass bordering the lilies. I learned to watch for their splash of vibrant color as summer wound along.

Our very first year at that home, we never saw the day lily patch in bloom.

“There are beautiful flowers in the woods where you walk,” said my elderly neighbor one afternoon. “Maybe next year you’ll see them.”

“Oh.” I didn’t understand. This was always the trend when plant-talk happened around me. I wondered silently, should I know about why we wouldn’t see the blooms?

The woods belonged to her and her husband. They had thoughtfully curated those woods like a park for fifty plus years. They knew where the day lilies should bloom.

“So, we won’t see them this year?” I asked casually.

Should I have verbally emphasized “won’t”, or “see”? Which option would have sounded like I knew anything about anything about beautiful hidden flowers in the woods, and, why hadn’t I seen them?

“No.” She paused while browsing a European travel magazine. “Someone mowed over them.”

Ah. That was her polite way of pointing out that my husband, faithfully mowing walking trails up over the hill, had accidentally taken out that year’s perennial growth with the mower. There would be no day lily blossoms in the sheltered clearing. Maybe I would keep this knowledge to myself for a month or two. He had spent hours mowing paths over the hill for me to wander at my leisure. It was my healing place.

Happily, the flowers have bloomed in force every year since. Sometimes they posed for me to take pictures as a way of saying “thanks” for not being taken out by my favorite groundskeeper.

Maybe we’re all a little like the hardy hidden day lilies. Some seasons we are unexpectedly on pause. Circumstances are beyond our control. That doesn’t mean our God-given gifts have been permanently muted. We need to regroup, rest, and trust the Creator’s master plan.

Photo credit: www.sharonoconnor.net

So extraordinary is Nature with her choicest treasures, spending plant beauty as she spends sunshine, pouring it forth into land and sea, garden and desert. And so the beauty of lilies falls on angels and men, bears and squirrels, wolves and sheep, birds and bees.
John Muir

Have you ever been on pause? What did God teach you? Provide for you? Prepare you for? What would you tell someone facing their own season of “pause”?

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

Luke 12:27-31 NIV