From Bad To Not-So-Bad

“From Bad To Not-So-Bad”

By Zach Wood

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

The beginning of last week, right as I was about to go on my lunch break at work, my wife called to tell me that the hose spigot broke off and she could not get it to turn off.  Apparently my youngest daughter turned it on and turned too hard.  As I was driving home, all I could think about was how we could get it turned off.  I was thinking that it would take me a while to get things figured out and I may have to call my supervisor to tell him I would be a while.

Once I got home, I tried turning it off at the spigot, but then decided to just try shutting the main water valve off in the house.  When I went inside to locate the valve, I noticed that there was a single line specifically going out to the spigot and it had its own valve.  Turned it off and that took care of the problem within just a couple minutes of being home.  Problem temporarily solved.  

As I was on my way back to work, I was relieved and thankful the situation was not any worse.  It could have been a lot worse and I was so glad and thanked God for the situation that turned out easier than I had planned.  Not only was it a quick, temporary fix at the time, I realized that I had also made a ham sandwich that day, instead of taking a lunch I had to heat up.  I was able to eat that on my way home. 

After looking at the handle later that night, I discovered it was just a broken handle and the spigot was intact still.  All it took was a trip to Menards and less than five dollars, it was fixed!  Yay!

I share all of this with you to say that something that could have been really bad turned out to be very simple and was better than I first thought.  That happens a lot in life.  We often think the worst at first, but then so many times, things are simpler than expected and God provides a very easy solution.  Not always, but many times. 

I was reminded that day to be thankful for the ways God provides.  I was reminded to be thankful when something seems bad at first, but then turns out better than expected.  When it is a cheap fix, that is even better!  And, I did not have to heat a lunch up!

I encourage all of us to be reminded to look for the ways God provides in the simplest ways to show us that it could always be worse and to be thankful when circumstances turn out better than we thought at first.

Thank God for the times when bad turns to not-so-bad.