When The Bad Outweighs the Good

It comes down the perspective, focus, and choosing how we look at life. Truth. But there are many times it seems the Bad Times outweigh the Good Times by a comfortable margin. We begin to wonder what life will be like when we rebound, make it back, turn the tide, or see the light at the end of the tunnel.

His name was Joseph. He had been through so many ups and downs. Good Times and Bad Times were galore. But there came a time when no one else in the kingdom had an answer for the dreams of the Pharaoh. Pardon me while I share a little lengthy reading of scripture, but you need to get an insider’s view of the problem, analysis, and solution.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph:
“Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river.
Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow.
Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt.
And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows.
When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning.
So I awoke.
Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good.
Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them.
And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads.
So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh,
“The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do:
The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one.
And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine.
This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh.
God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt;
but after them seven years of famine will arise,
and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt;
and the famine will deplete the land.
So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following,
for it will be very severe.
And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God,
and God will shortly bring it to pass.
Genesis 41:17-32 NKJV

Life is going to be extraordinarily good. Then it’s going to get bad, really bad. It will be so bad all will forget the years of plenty entirely.

That’s pretty bad.

But that’s the way we live and have lived for generations. The Good comes. The Bad follows. At times it’s so bad we forget the Good times.

Listen to popular music from any genre, read poetry from any century, or spend time in any library, and you’ll find this to be true. Bad times often make us forget the good times.

It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

The truth is that we often remember the bad and more quickly forget the good. One insight may revolve around a survival technique. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best. Survive!

I confess I never saw 2020 coming.

It’s the year I turned 65, and it promised to be the year we began a retirement journey we had worked for. The pandemic reared its ugly head and just about consumed all the memories of the good years. I refuse to live with my memories of this season wrapped up in all the bad news. My focus is to look for the silver lining. Although my bride stepped into a well-deserved retirement, I could not step away from my church. For some callings, there are times you don’t walk away. This is one of them. When will the Good Times return so we can enjoy the years we looked toward? No Idea. But those days will come.

Consider Job of Biblical Fame. In the first chapter, we learn how good he had it, and then Satan steps in to prove how bad he can make it. For the following 41 chapters, we follow Job through ups and downs, and mostly it’s the down we remember. The last seven verses of the book tell about Job’s rebounding good years.

You can pick just about any book in the Bible and you’ll find a similar pattern. Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Good. Bad… Sounds like you’re on a roller coaster! Some hills are a long slog to the top, and some valleys are more quickly found than anything you could ever imagine.

The Good Sandwiched the Bad, but the bad was 41 chapters long! The Good? No more than 20 verses.

Perspective? We all have bad times, and we can talk them to death, but we live for the Good Times! We appreciate the good when we’ve survived the bad.

Bad times have a scientific value.
These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep your perspective, focus, and choose how best to survive the bad so that you can live for the good.