Badge of Honor

Badge of Honor

Have you ever wondered why you go through hard times in your life?  Have you ever wondered why you go through bad situations?  Have you ever just wondered “why me?”  “Why do I have to go through this?”  “I haven’t done anything wrong!”  Or “I deserve this?”  It’s absolutely normal to think that way and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

But have you ever asked yourself the opposite question such as “why not me?”  I know!  You would never ask yourself that question right?  Of course not!  Who would just volunteer to endure hardships? 

But hold that thought!  Have you ever said, “I’ve experienced that before” or “been there, done that”?  Sound familiar?  Think about this.  You may not have done anything wrong or deserve it but there’s a reason why you go through certain things.  God has a plan for your life and already has your life planned out.

Everything we go through (good and bad), God has us go through it for a reason.  It is not to make us feel bad but to actually make us stronger and more mature people so that we can help someone else who is about to face the same situation.  A person will say, “I’ve been through a lot but God took me through it.”  And there’s even a scripture that relates to this as well.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 KJV)

There are at least 2 key things we need to understand about Romans 8:28 in order to use it properly.  One, this verse is referring to believers.  It is not something to be thrown at nonbelievers because they are likely to get a twisted view of God or a very, negative image of Christian faith.

The second key element is not to focus on one, particular event but the sum of all events.  There is a huge difference between saying “each thing by itself is good” and “all things work together for good”.  The verse doesn’t say “it is good” if you break your leg, get in a car wreck, lose a friend through death, house burns down or you get robbed.

But it does say that God uses those events and connects them together with every aspect of our lives in order to produce the very, best of us.

All things are not good.  It would be foolish to say that they are.  But the Bible says;

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 KJV)

Think about when we cook or bake a cake.  In order to bake a cake, we need a handful of ingredients and an oven at a certain temperature.  We need;

Eggs

Milk

Cake mix

Oven at 350© for (let’s say 30 minutes)

This is a perfect example!  In order to make the perfect cake, we need ALL of those ingredients.  If one item is missing, then that messes up the whole process.  Now imagine the oven being at the wrong temperature.  What will happen?  If it is too high, the cake will burn.  If it is too low, it will come out mushy, gooey and runny.  Or in other words……UNDERCOOKED!

And then lastly, the time limit.  The cake has to be in the oven for a certain amount of time otherwise it will not turn out right.

So to wrap things up, going through good and bad times all work together for the good of making us better people.  Let me tie that in with the cake.  Let’s say the cake mix and milk represent the good times and eggs and the oven are the bad times.

We can be enjoying life with our milk and cake mix and then all of sudden, eggs come into our lives.  The eggs could be a minor problem.  Not too bad.  But then something major happens that causes a world of trouble.  So now we are going to have to go through the heat and stay in it for a certain amount of time until God brings us out.

You see? We can help someone else go through what we have experienced.  We can be their advisor or mentor.  That will be our badge of honor because we have gained wisdom from our own, personal experiences.  If we want that badge of honor, we are going to have to earn it!