Today may be bad, but God is good”This is embarrassing, but I confess that I did something really dumb the other day. I locked my keys in my car.
In all of my years of driving, and of all the other dumb things I’ve ever done, I’ve prided myself in the fact that I’ve never locked my keys in my car. I always make sure that I have my keys in my hand or in my pocket before I close the car door. The crazy thing was, I didn’t just lock my keys in the car. I also left the motor running.
I was preaching the funeral of a long-time member of my former church. Our practice there in that north Georgia community is to gather at the funeral home for prayer with the family, and then to proceed with the hearse to the church. After I pray with the family, I usually go ahead to the church to check on last minute details.

When I drove into the church parking lot, I had my mind on catching up with the minister of music and making sure we had our order of service together. I pulled into the parking lot, threw the car into park and hopped out of the car. As soon as I shut the door, I started feeling my pockets and realized that I didn’t have my keys. And then I thought, “Is that car still running?”

Suddenly my mind was no longer on the funeral message. I was wondering how in the world I was going to get into the car and how long the gasoline would hold out. I had not planned to spend the whole day in north Georgia.

I told one of the funeral home workers what I had done and asked him to be thinking with me about how we could solve my dilemma.

The funeral started and, in the middle of the congregation singing “Because He Lives,” another funeral home employee came into the foyer, caught my attention on the podium and held up my keys. A wave of relief swept across me and I went “Yes!” right in the middle of the verse that goes, “And then one day we’ll cross the river, I’ll fight life’s final war with pain.”

Now I could get in the funeral spirit.

I think it was Mama who said there’d be days like this. Have you ever thought about pastors having a bad day? Being human, we pastors have our share of rotten days just like everybody else.

You’ve heard those “You know you’re having a bad day when ...” sayings. Someone wrote some for pastors. Pastor, you know they’re having a bad day when:

The church votes to change your day off to Sunday;

You preach the same sermon two Sundays in a row and no one notices;

You are elected pastor emeritus of the church at age 28;

You ask a woman where her husband is today and she replies, “right where you buried him last week.”

You go to the rest room and forget to turn off your lapel microphone and a “holy flush” fills the sanctuary through the sound system.

One of your sermons wins the prize on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

When days like this come along, when little irritations and inconveniences come into our lives, or when major adversity surfaces, we need to remember that today may be bad, but God is good. The Psalmist wrote, “You are good, and what you do is good...” (Psalm 119:68). God gives us His comfort and strength to deal with life’s tough times.

God also uses these tough experiences to teach us and to grow us spiritually. Psalm 119:71 reads, “It was good for me to be afflicted, so I might learn your decrees.” Afflictions are good teachers.

God grows our character and strengthens our faith as we lean on Him and learn from Him. One word translated “character” in the New Testament means “proven reliable.” God wants to make us strong and he uses the aggravations that come our way to produce positive gains spiritually.

The next time hardship comes your way, let God teach you, and as you hang in there, remember, God is good.

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page