Do the Pebbles in the Brook Make it Sing?

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “It’s the pebbles in the brook that makes it sing,” right?  In other words, without those little obstacles located throughout the water, we wouldn’t enjoy the sweet sounds of the water flowing down stream.  And while I love the metaphor, (who am I kidding, I love all metaphors! :-)) there’s something in that message we have to keep straight.

I recently read a post on a friend’s Facebook page that basically derided our incessant focus on happiness for a more “realistic” focus on “real life” complete with sadness, difficulties and obstacles.  In other words, without the hardships and negative sides of life we could not be complete and whole.  And that little beauty got me thinking…  I mean, if the pebbles in the brook make it sing, maybe we need the negative side of life in order to enjoy the good?  I mean, how would we know the good, if we didn’t know the bad?  I mean, how can we appreciate our health without experiencing times of sickness and pain?  Hmmm…  Quite a conundrum it seems.

“Don’t get it twisted!”, he exclaims with righteous indignation, spilling his glass of wine!!  Goodness is never dependent upon bad to do its job!  The Yin  and the Yang are a philosophers invention, that while recognizing the duality of life, fails to see the reality behind it.   You see, there’s a gross generalization that is sweeping the earth today, namely that everything that happens comes from the hand of God (or the universe or the earth) etc.  And that generalization gains access to your mind by counting on the fact that you won’t look any deeper than the cliché!  How many times have you read something like, “God is allowing all this evil to come upon me because He knows I’m strong enough to handle it?”  Or, “God must be using this horrible suffering to teach me a greater lesson!”  Egads!  God doesn’t need evil to make you a better person.  God doesn’t use negatives to make us appreciate the positives.  Again, egads!  Wouldn’t that be like me refusing to feed one of my children when they were hungry to make them appreciate the value of having food?  People go to jail for that kind of behavior and yet we say it about God without even flinching.  Can you honestly imagine (think now, don’t just go back to what someone told you before) that a God of pure love would purposely “eff” with you to teach you a lesson?  Maybe give you a little cancer to make you humble?  Or worse, kill the people you love for some mysterious reason you will understand later in the great by and by?  Really?

God says His people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.  Not understanding the spiritual world leads to a lot of heartache and pain.  There are two spiritual forces at work in the world today, one for good and one for evil.  And it may be a bitter pill to swallow, but God never did anything evil to anyone ever.  He is light and in Him is NO DARKNESS AT ALL!  The reality is that we have all been sold a bill of goods.  We have become trained to expect bad things to happen and thus without knowing open the door to all kinds of calamity.  “Hey, you win some, you lose some.”  “That’s just life.”  “Maybe it was just his time to go.”  What all these things have in common is a vague belief that life was supposed to be some good and some bad.  Some happiness, some suffering.  Yet, God is incapable of evil, so what gives?

In the beginning, God placed a man and woman in paradise.  There was no suffering.  There was no death.  There was no evil.  There was no fear.  Yet when they chose an evil alternative (as folks often do) evil was introduced to the world.  And we are still living under the effects of that evil to this day.  But, there’s a day coming when there will no longer be any such thing as evil, so how can we conclude that good needs evil to function?

You get it?  The pebbles in the brook do make it sing, just as God is able to work with our many obstacles and challenges to help us sing.  But, God doesn’t need the pebbles, He just works with what is!  God would never test you with evil to make you stronger or build your character.  However, He is able to strengthen you against that evil which does build character.  But, don’t get it twisted, He doesn’t need the negatives.  In fact, He would rather we learn without all the pain, but us humans tend to be quite hard-headed (and hard-hearted).  So, He works with what is.  (Isn’t God grand?)

So I’m beseeching you, don’t allow the logic of the world to convince you that suffering is normal; part of life or necessary!  You don’t have to pay the price or go through the bad to get to the good.  You don’t have to accept sickness and disease as normal.  Evil isn’t normal it’s an aberration!  God intended for you to be happy, healthy, prosperous, vibrant and full of life!  He doesn’t need obstacles, harassment and suffering to get you there, He just needs you to believe what He says!

At the end of the day, what makes us whole and complete and entire is love.  ‘Whole things’ aren’t full of cracks and potholes.  And while we may experience the negatives of life, just remember they are never God’s will and if you will look for Him, He will always show you the way back to love; back to peace of mind; back to His perfect wholeness.

Can you hear that gentle splashing of the water on the stones?  Nah, it’s just my wine I spilled earlier… 😉

Just some good thoughts…