Forgive me. I wanted to dive into this and drag it down from the upper floors of my brain. For me, for you too I guess. -JB
We have a God, who, by Christ’s finished work, has caused all things to work together for our good. Or, just good.
ALL things, to WORK TOGETHER, for GOOD.
ALL Things – Small or big, seen or unseen, intentional, un-intentional, comprising all senses, all things. ALL things. Not some things, ALL things, including nothing.
While I was writing that, I played with a thought: The opposite of everything is not nothing, but rather, some things. Or, not JUST nothing, but anything less than everything. Anything less than everything is not everything. Now that I think about it, it does sound obvious, but it needs to be said, because we are placing emphasis what it means when ALL things are involved.
WORK TOGETHER – Everything that does happen, or everything that is, is by no means independent. All things work together, implying that existence of a relationship between one thing and another. Nothing that is created has no relation to anything else. One way or the other, everything is interconnected, as a network.
It’s not for us to say how exactly. But for starters we may play with the thought that one thing is an effect of another, just as it is also the cause of another thing. And, if I am to play with this thought, am I to say that we do what we do out of cause, and also out of effect? I drank and got drunk. I got drunk, and woke up early. I felt great, and now I write.
Everything we do is part of everything, and since everything has its causes and effects, so all we do has the same. ALL things have their own cause and effect, and are themselves part of greater causes, contributing to greater effects. In this perspective, they DO work together… And again, it is simply beyond our means and capabilities as created beings to comprehend why things work together and how events happen to work together.
Fortunately, for Christians, this stress is lifted from us for we would do well to acknowledge WHO oversees all of it. And only God can cause ALL things; and only God, beyond space and time, God, whom I call AllFather (along with the Vikings – great series, BTW), or just Father – Creator of Time and Space, Father of All.
My Father is the Father of All. Father of all things, and all things work together.
for GOOD – Now, from one aspect we use “for good”, to imply “forever” (Or, “forever” the same way we say “for good”). From this point of view we may imply that our God causes all things to work together with eternal, timeless impact?
Playing with this thought, and relating the saying (‘for good’ = ‘forever’) and the meaning (or ‘for good’ for goodness’ sake), may we imply therefore that what is good, is eternal? Can we say that all that has been worked together is good, and not only good but eternal – no matter what “bad” there is for our senses to perceive?
Maybe what we understand of good ought to imply more of what stands forever, instead of what we call ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in each and every instance we could possibly bring up?
If you would allow me to indulge further: Recall that ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ had their origins from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil; and clearly, this was separate from the Tree of Life. What I’m trying to get at here is the link between goodness and eternity, and now, Life, simply because of its separation from the knowledge of Good & Evil.
For we see how God is good, but more than good, He is Life. Thoughts higher than ours, ways beyond our own, He is alive – more than a good God, He is THE Living God, Elohim.
Or, we can look at this another way – How do we know that God is good? Because He is eternal, and because He is alive. We certainly see this when Christ rose from the dead – dying, but as the Apostles beautifully elaborated in Acts 2, death could not hold Him down.
By Christ’s resurrection we know that God is alive, God is eternal, and God, therefore, is good.
How pleasant, how this comes together. All good is life, and life is all good.
You can operate from the cause of right or wrong, but your effects would still be dead. But Christ’s finished work is both cause and effect, in that it is Life. Christ is Life, for Good, for Life, for Eternity.
(An Epilogue, of sorts)
Consider the following thought: He did all of the work, and He does all the work for me – Is this absurd and arrogant? Perhaps, without consideration of Christ’s cause and effect. See, when we take time to remember Christ’s finished work, and all behind it, and all that it leads to, we are left full and hungry at the same time.
When we allow our minds to play, and to explore the thoughts of how Christ is both Cause and Effect, the thought that He works for us is not as repulsive as the Disciples thought as He washed their feet. Instead, it would add force to the living waters we possess, fuel to the fire that rages within, yet does not consume us.
A popular 80’s song goes, “Am I only dreaming, or is this ‘burning’ an eternal flame?’ – For the Christian, it may very well be eternal, and as far as goodness and life goes, well, the Holy Spirit would surely not burn lukewarm and disgusting.
We would do well to understand that God serves us, by way of moving in the belief, the knowledge that He is the Living God who makes ALL things WORK TOGETHER, for GOOD.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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