by Suzie Botross
My 20 year old son, Luke, got a random text from a mate of a mate the other night. The text asked for our home address but didn’t explain why. Luke read the text out loud to us as we all sat around the dinner table that evening. The different reactions, responses and remarks that the text elicited were a fine illustration of the spectrum of personalities, outlooks and temperaments that make up our family. The responses ranged from, “How well do you know this guy?” “Is it safe to be giving him our address?” “Why isn’t he telling you why he wants your address?” “Maybe he’s wanting to send you an invitation to something!” “Maybe he took a liking to you and is considering hanging out!” “Maybe he wants to drop something off” There were more responses than that, but I just don’t recall them all. But the moral of the story is that we all laughed and divided the room into an imaginary half. One side for the optimists and the other side for the realists or the pessimists.
Which side of our imaginary room would you have gone to? Do your ears and your internal hard drive pick up on the alarm bells, the fear signals or the potential downfalls in most situations? Or do you gravitate towards optimistic thoughts and assume the best outcomes in most situations?
In Matthew 17:22-23 Jesus predicts His death to His disciples. It reads like this: “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.”
Were there optimists and pessimists in the disciples team? Surely!
I couldn’t help but notice that whilst the disciples had every reason to be filled with grief at Jesus’ announcement, yet in the same sentence, He had also just informed them that “on the third day he will be raised to life.” Unless the scripture omitted their relieved and excited response to this vital detail, then it’s fair to assume that the disciples missed this mind blowing latter half of the announcement, and were more fixated on the death than on the resurrection. More fixated on the killing bit, than on the rising bit.
I stopped at that verse and I asked myself: “How often am I like the disciples? How frequently do I only focus on the bad news and allow the good news to go straight over my head? It occurred to me that in all of my difficult and gut wrenching situations, there’s always the other reality that says, “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) but yet, I can easily omit that if I’m too fixated on the bad right under my nose, rather than the good that lies up ahead.
Do you want to be that woman who focuses only on the hard, the challenging, the sad, the distressing and what’s going on right now? Or do you want to be that woman of God who allows yourself to hear the full facts and trusts that the rest of your story involves all things working together for good? Be that woman who believes that whilst Jesus was going to be killed, He was also going to rise again. Be that woman who believes that whilst anxiety, fear, suspicion, cynicism may exist now, there’s more to the story. Don’t miss that latter part of the story! Ask God to give you spiritual eyes and ears that don’t gloss over the promises.
Would you believe that my son’s mate’s mate actually delivered a free mobile phone to our home the day after he sent that random text! It turned out that the night he met Luke he had noticed that Luke’s phone had a cracked screen. He had a spare one, he took a liking to Luke and so it had made sense to him to gift Luke with a free phone! Mmmm, yep, and all the pessimists in my household were shocked! And hopefully you too will be just as shocked when Jesus comes through for you too!
Dear friend, “you are dressed in strength and confidence and you can laugh at the days to come.” (Proverbs 31:25)
Suzie Botross has been married to Peter for 25 years. She is mum to 3 children aged, 18, 15 and 12. Suzie is an Author of two books, She Will Run, and, Break Free from Motherly Guilt. Suzie has trained global organisations for 20 years on all things learning and development which allows her to blend in this expertise with her passion for raising Jesus-like disciples. She brings her audiences proven, practical, honest, application-based, say-it-as-it-is and transformative teaching. Suzie is also the Co-founder (alongside Peter) of a Discipleship Training organisation called, GenJ. GenJ is all about raising a generation of Jesus-like disciples and disciple-makers, via online and in-person training programs, resources, coaching and television broadcast. Follow GenJ on Instagram.
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