The Good, The Bad, The Unknowable

We as human beings experience many events and the results of those events on any given day. And we label these events: good or bad. But should we? What causes us to label an event as good or bad in the first place? And how do we arrive at that label?
All labels are based on our personal filters because essentially, life just happens. Example: you're on your way home from work and you drive by an accident. Depending on your "filter" you may see the accident as either a sad thing or an inconvenience that is keeping you from getting home sooner eh? Now, same example; you drive by an accident only this time, you recognize the car as that of your spouse. What does your filter do now?


And exactly when SHOULD we apply the label? For example: You lose your job - bad. But.......you find a job the next day that you like more, has better benefits and pays more - good. So what was losing your job? Good? or Bad? It was both. There is sadness in losing a job, there is fear, there is a sense of loss and all of these emotions need to be dealt with. But, there is joy in finding a new job, a sense of gratitude and a sense of excitement. So should we only label the result of the event and not the event itself?

In the above example, suppose you don't find a job and you end up on the streets. That is bad. Or is it? Now that I've thought about it, the distinction between "event" and "event results" is NOT all that simple because as soon as we experience the result of an event, the result now becomes a NEW event! Example above: job you like, better pay, better benefits..........tyranical boss. Good or bad?

Here is how to bypass labeling daily things as good and bad: Consider life as if it were a book. We do not know how it ends and we should realize that at every moment we are in the middle of a paragraph. How many times, have we experienced something that we thought was bad only to have it turn out better than we even imagined and how many times have we experienced something good only to have it end up being our worst nightmare?

So why do we label? Maybe its for the same reason we skip to the end of the book and read the ending first. Uncertainty is frightening and we all want to know that the ending will be happy. So I suggest, that instead of using labels to try and figure out what type of ending our lives will have, we lean on faith and remember that God works all things to the good of those that love Him. The end.
gently,laura