My dad tells this story at "Children's Time" in worship every now and then. While I don't remember the details, I can give you the gist.
Something "bad" happens to this guy. People pity him, but the guy says, "I don't know, it could be good, it could be bad." The thing results in something "good." And the guy tells people again, "I don't know, it could be good, it could be bad." Well, this goes on for a while before my dad cuts off the story.
The moral of the story is we never know just what is "good" or "bad" by a first glance. We make assumptions and then go from there.
So we could say the flooding disaster was actually a good thing...because it forced Christian and I to do something that we'd been putting off for a while - organizing the junk under the stairs. Christian went through our electronic components and got rid of the pieces that are largely worthless at this point. I went through my bags (confession: I'm kind of a bag lady) and got rid of about half of them (set aside to donate of course).
Once these things were pared down, we put them into their own storage containers. We decided this was the best course of action because it would prevent any damage later (ahem, floods), would increase accessibility, visibility (clear containers make a difference), and will make moving a lot easier whenever that happens later.
While this was a positive result, the last few days I've been waking up with my feet already swollen. The remaining water in our apartment has made the whole place incredibly hot and humid (particularly the second floor). Needless to say I've been taking a lot of sweaty naps.
To wrap this whole lovely situation with a bow, I threw up my breakfast this morning about 3 seconds after I finished it. Don't worry - I ate the same thing I always do for breakfast during the week. Nothing was bad or weird. But of course, a baby pressing against your stomach can make you hurl (lovely alien type response) or you could be getting ready to pop a baby out (a second lovely alien type response). I'm hoping for the former.
Whatever the deal is, this week just keeps ramping up with the awesome. Sigh.
Once there was a Chinese farmer who had one son who was a marvelous help on the farm. One day, the farmer received a marvelous gift... a horse. All of the farmers friends came and congratulated him on his good fortune. He responded, "Could be good, could be bad... we'll have to wait and see." The next day, the horse threw the son, breaking his leg. All of the farmers friends came and said, "That is just terrible!" The farmer replied, "Could be good, could be bad... we'll have to wait and see." A week later the army marched through, headed off to war. Everyone expected an easy victory with all of the soldiers coming home with riches beyond their imagining. Of course, the son could not go. The friends remarked, "How terrible, your son will not be able to get rich like everyone else's." The farmer replied, "Could be good, could be bad... we'll have to wait and see." A week later they received word that the army had been defeated and almost everyone was killed. "You're so lucky, your son was spared and you have someone to help at your farm..." The farmer replied, "Could be good, could be bad... we'll have to wait and see." and on the story goes...
ReplyDeleteThat's the one!
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