Written by Kirk Cowman
In February, 2002 a fire broke out in a classroom of Canadian Bible College & Seminary. At the time I was working as the Director of Information Technology for the school. My department and our server room was located directly under the classroom where the fire broke out. Five hours later the fire was out and the building containing the classroom, I.T. Department and server room was destroyed.
Where was God in this? No one was injured, so you could say he was there, but the disruption to the school was huge. We were trying to sell the campus at the time as the school was moving to Calgary. Would this jeopardize the sale and move? When the fire broke out we had been building new servers for the Calgary campus. They were set to go online in 6 weeks and all that work was gone. The morning after the fire I sat on the edge of my bed crying, exhausted and wondering why.
Have you ever been through something awful and wondered where God was in the midst of it?
In Acts 27 things go from bad to worse for Paul. He has been arrested, put through numerous trials and now is being transferred to Rome for his final trial. In the midst of the prisoner transfer a storm breaks out. For fourteen days a storm rages and blows the ship where ever it pleases. The sailors can do nothing but try to hold the ship together. Finally the storm wins, the ship is destroyed and Paul and everyone onboard is washed up on the shore of an island. No lives are lost but they are shipwrecked. Where was God in all this? No one died, but hadn’t Paul been through enough already? Did he really need to go through the trauma of a shipwreck?
If you read Acts 27 you won’t find Paul asking that question. Instead, Paul hears from God that he and all his shipmates will be safe, and he trusts God. Even when the Roman soldiers cut loose the life rafts because the crew was going to abandon ship and leave the passengers to fend for themselves, Paul is resolute in his trust of God.
Some time before this happened, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome and said, “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Paul believed God could be trusted to keep his word. Even if something awful happened, God could still be trusted to turn it into something good.
Acts 27 shows us that Paul believed what he wrote. Paul is washed up onto the island of Malta. God turns the traumatic events of a shipwreck into an opportunity to reveal his glory and for Paul to be a witness to the people of Island. God’s hand was on and guiding Paul through it all. In all things God brings about good for those he loves and those who follow his purpose. When we follow God’s purpose for our life, as Paul did, we can believe God will do the same in our lives.
Has God ever brought about something good from something bad in your life?
In 2002, there was a fire and I wondered where God was. It turns out he was there. An insurance settlement allowed us to invest $250,000 into the I.T. infrastructure of the Calgary campus, instead of the shoestring budget I was trying to do it on. It wasn’t just I.T. that benefited. We were able to outfit much of the new campus with new furniture. As for the sale of the Regina campus, the organization who bought it didn’t need all the space, but they did need cash to help pay the mortgage. So they took a cash settlement instead of rebuilding what had burned down. No one was hurt and two Christian Colleges benefited significantly. It turns out that God was there the whole time.
If Paul could believe what he wrote in Romans 8:28 in the middle of a shipwreck, maybe we should trust God in the midst of our problems today? What do you need to trust God with? Why not take some time to look for the hand of God in the midst of your circumstances? Trust that God’s hand will be on you and with you today, no matter what happens.
