More Good Days than Bad

“And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” (Ge 47:9 AV)

Time goes by fast and we tend to remember the good times more than the bad!  Jacob had some bad days.  He had to flee from Esau.  He was defrauded by his father-in-law.  He returned only to feel threatened by Esau all over again.  His two sons, Simeon and Levi, wiped out a neighbor because his daughter had been raped.  Reuben slept with his concubine.  Rachel died in childbirth.  So on and so on.  There is never a perfect life no matter what the commercials try to tell us.  As Job said, “A man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.”  How we choose to remember those days is how we will experience those days.

I have been to many funerals.  There is one thing that is common to them all.  The collage of pictures which is shown at the viewing and prior to the funeral service are pictures of the good times the deceased had had in life.  Pictures of their marriage.  Kids and grand-kids.  Family trips or times of family fellowships.  A picnic here.  A camping trip there.  Playing corn hole or horseshoes.  There are pictures of sports teams.  Pictures of meals shared.  What one doesn’t see are pictures of layoffs, food stamps, empty cupboards.  They don’t see pictures of car wrecks, shut off utilities, divorce proceedings.  We don’t see pictures of a wayward child in the midst of his or her frivolity.  We don’t see the pictures of an argument that was so heated a spouse left for a few days.  We don’t see those pictures because the evil days are few.

God is good to us.  He truly is.  Even those who reject Him have good days.  Not all the days are bad days.  What the world wants us to do is be focused on those bad days.  It wants us to seek drugs, material things, vacations, a new pill, etc that will make are life a virtual utopia.  In reality, those who know Christ shall suffer, but few and evil will our days be!  It all depends upon that which we choose to dwell!  The good, the bad, or the ugly!