Not You but God

Not You But God
Genesis 45:1-28

Last night we had a group of students in our home for dessert after class. One of them asked what is my favorite book in the Bible (the answer is Ecclesiastes) and then what is my disabled wife’s favorite book. I am not aware that she ever had one, but she had a favorite text, which is that “for people who love God, he makes all things work together for good, for people who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). It is quite a statement for someone who knew she had a potentially devastating illness but didn’t know that she would end up year after year unable to do anything or even to speak. Thinking about it now, I realize Paul’s words have different implications from the ones I would have realized a decade or two ago. What I see in Ann is that being called according to God’s purpose means being called to a role within God’s wider purpose; it does not refer merely to her individual relationship with God. In her disability she has a strange ministry to people (including me), a kind of calling. God brings good out of the bad thing that is her disability...