Everything is All Right

There’s a game I’ve played throughout my life. The funny thing is that whenever I play the game, I lose.  Often I didn’t know I was playing, and I didn’t even know I was the loser. Sometimes I still unconsciously play the game, but at least I’m more apt to come to my senses than I was before. If I want to play, I can, but who wants to play a game that’s impossible to win?

  I wonder if you play the game, too.

You can’t buy the game in the store or go somewhere to play it. You can actually play anywhere. It costs nothing to begin the game but a lot to continue.

What is it?

The If I Only Had­­ (you fill in the blank), Then Everything Would Be All Right Game.

You know what I mean. If only I had more money, a better job, a girl/boyfriend, a  cooperative spouse, thoughtful coworkers, better health, a patient boss, a job, a new whatever, children who listened, children at all, a bigger house, better grades, more time. You name whatever it is that you think you need to have. Then, when you get that, you will be happy. Right?

That’s the twist in this game. We think that the getting will make us happy. It may for a while. Just when you think your wish has come true, you lose. You aren’t happy for long, or something else crops up.

This week I read and re-read about a woman who didn’t play the game. I think she knew she couldn’t win, so she wouldn’t play. She lived life on a different plane. That’s where I want to live. II Kings 4: 8-38 records her story.

This woman was rich—rich enough to extend hospitality to a prophet and put an addition onto her home for him. Her kindness prompted the man of God to offer to do something for her, but she declined. She was satisfied. How rare—particularly because she had no son. She must have given up hope of having one, choosing to be content. Then the prophet told her she would have a child after all. Although everything seemed against the possibility, it happened.  A barren woman finally with a son, after all the years of marriage!

Then comes the opportunity of a lifetime to play The If I Only Had XXXX, Then Everything Would Be All Right Game. The woman’s son dies. Her anguish is unimaginable.

Where does she go? Where would you go? To the prophet, of course! Before she climbs on a donkey, she tells her husband where she’s going, but she doesn’t tell him what’s happened to their son. At his puzzlement, she only says, “It’s all right.” What? It wasn’t. How could she say that?

Then she astonishes me a second time. When she gets to the prophet, his servant asks about her, her husband, and her son. Her response? “Everything is all right.” She said it again? How?

I’d have said, “What’s the big idea, giving a huge blessing and taking it away. What’s that all about?” In other words: “I can only be happy, joyful, content, if you fix this situation.”

She didn’t. She didn’t play games.

 Instead, she said everything was all right, in spite of how things looked and how much she’d lost. I think she could say that the same way we can. The Sovereign Lord knows, and everything, everything is all right. When we get to that place in our lives and choose to put aside the If/Then game, we win every time. And our Father smiles because he knows and we believe that all is well, because it is.