Remember the movie Forest Gump? Forest said his mama always told him “Stupid is as stupid does.”
She didn’t call everyone stupid that did stupid things, she meant people sometimes do stupid things, and you need to think about doing something before you do it.
To me, Forest took on life with all the enthusiasm of a child. He knew– apparently his mama has explained it to him– that he was different, a little slow, maybe not the brightest bulb in the pack, but he also learned that hard work made up for a lot of that.
He had learned to take insult and injury with the same attitude: “Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’ll get.”
But you take it, anyway it comes, and you learn to deal with it.
This was the message that Forest wanted to relay to Lieutenant Dan, but maybe he didn’t know exactly how. Lt. Dan was mad at God, mad at Forest for saving him in Viet Nam, mad at the world, and wallowed in self-pity.
But Forest believed Dan was one of his dearest friends, and he never gave up on him.
And because Forest never quit on Dan, Dan finally learned that we don’t know why God allows things to happen to us, but we know that God knows and cares about us, even when we’re mad at Him. Dan made his peace with God and with Forest.
I’ve done some stupid things in my life. Many I’m embarrassed to even think about, others are simply, well, stupid! It’s called Human Nature. We have to accept it, everyone is infected with it, and that’s LIFE.
God didn’t give up on me. Years ago He gave me a wife whose faith has sustained not only her but me as well. In the trials in our marriage when I was drifting away from God, she clung to Him, believed He is faithful, and turned me over to Him.
Bad things are one way God brings us back to Him. They are His way of teaching us that we’re being stupid, that we need to open our eyes and our minds and our hearts and turn to Him no matter what life throws at us, and keep turning to Him.
God is not a crutch. He is a Sustainer, a Comforter, a Helper, an Anchor by whom we can take hold of Eternal things in Heavenly places, and experience peace amidst suffering and pain.
Hear what God says through the Psalmist (91:14) what He will do for man’s devotion to Him:
“Because he is lovingly devoted to Me, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows My name. When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.”
Oswald Chambers wrote: “The human soul is so mysterious that in the moment of a great tragedy men get face to face with things they never gave heed to before.” “No matter how complicated the circumstances may be, one moment of contact with Jesus, and the fuss is gone, the panic is gone, all the shallow emptiness is gone, and His peace is put in, absolute tranquility…”
“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or thing to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” -Romans 8:38-39
THE RIGHT RENDITION 