It’s probably not good grammar. And I don’t know if Kenny Rogers sang about it, yet it’s good advice. It divides our reaction to Chance into two categories: we can either whine about “what if…”, and long for greener pastures; or we can take what comes and make something good of it. Very few of us get everything we want when we want it–so we’re advised to mine the gold out of each situation…and often to be surprised at the pile of gleam it DOES yield!
Jeremiah warned Jerusalem that the Babylonians were coming, and they did. From the ruins of their hopes and dreams, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles now bemoaning their fate in Babylon. (29:1-7) “Build houses…plant gardens…have a lot of Jewish children….Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Not only is this good advice for spiritual and mental stability, but it’s God’s assurance that the Lord of Hosts also functions in Babylon! (Who’da guessed?)
Paul was imprisoned, “chained like a criminal”, for his tenacious appeal to Caesar about his faith and works. But he wrote to Timothy, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” (II Timothy 2:10) He certainly hadn’t an easy life, and must have anticipated his eventual martyrdom. A lesser man might have chucked it all in, given in to Them and abandoned the fight. “But the word of God is not chained.” (v.9) Sometimes being a stubborn old man is not a bad thing!
Luke’s story about the ten lepers (17:11-19) is full of possibility: the clustering of dis-similar people into a crisis-group; the healing strength of Jesus; a discussion of social laws and priestly customs toward the ill; the gratitude factor of “only” one-tenth… But I’d like to lift up the group’s approach to Jesus, recognizing that even here in the no-man’s land between Samaria & Galilee comes God’s Grace. We know nothing of their earlier attitude, but here at least they’re Playing their Hand–with some success. “As they went, they were made clean,”
These three anecdotes bring a sense of reality to Exiles in Babylon, Paul’s Roman prison and a support-group for the diseased. None of them are in very happy times or circumstances, yet they somehow manage to bloom where they’re planted. Americans of today are overflowing with angst and distrust. Residents of Developing Countries live with plagues, drought and terror. Europeans and Asians alike are caught with pollution of air & water. Will Believers offer Godly advice about Playing the Hand You’ve been Dealt? And trying to bloom where they’re planted??
God Bless Us, Every One H B King
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