Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people. We, as members of the human race, are prone to experience both good and bad, regardless of whether we are good or bad. Life experiences are the common lot of life.

Granted, it seems that some experience more than their fair share of bad, while others seem to experience an overabundance of good. Some seem to have been born for adversity, while others seem to have been born with the proverbial golden spoon in their mouth. Why? That is the age-old question, right? Why does like seem to be so out of balance?

We’ve probably all known some who were prone to experience only bad. It’s like that song from the “Hee Haw” variety show from long ago. The lyrics would be funny if there was not so much truth in them. Do you remember? The chorus sticks in my memory banks even though I haven’t heard it in many, many years:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.

Have you known someone whose picture could be posted beside these lyrics? Perhaps you even view yourself in such terms. Perhaps you are one of those who is always looking at others, with their well filled “bags”, wondering why they have all the “good luck” when your bag is, like Charlie Brown’s, always filled with rocks. Maybe you live each day wondering when your ship is going to come in. And yet, every day, day-after-day, your ship never appears on the horizon.

If someone asked you to explain what “life isn’t fair” means, how would you respond? As you think about your own life, right now, whatever season of life you happen to be in, would you describe it as one who has been the recipient of more good than bad; more bad than good; better than you deserve; worse than you deserve? Where would you fall on the line representing the spectrum between good and bad?

For the sake of clarification, let’s perform a little experiment. Take a pencil and sheet of paper, dividing the sheet of paper into two columns. Now, think about your life up to this point. Would you say that you have experienced more good than bad? Then on the left side, begin making a list of the good things that have happened in your life. Think of big things and little things – as many as you can in five minutes.

Once you have completed that list, then begin a second list. This list should consist of the bad things that have happened to you. Make these two lists as extensive as possible.

Now, once both lists are completed, and you feel that you have made a pretty comprehensive list of both, then take a few more minutes to compare the two lists. Not so much this time in trying to go back through every entry individually, but look at the list as a whole. How long is the good list? How long is the bad list?

You see, the point of this exercise is not to look at the items one by one, but to see that your life, just like everyone else’s, is an ongoing saga of episodes of good and bad. Granted, some will have more on one side than the other, but there will be entries on both, if we have been totally honest.

So, what’s the point? The point is simply that we should live every day, each day, one day at a time. We often worry about tomorrow’s “bad”, while at the same time trying to live “In” yesterday’s “good.” Life just doesn’t work that way. God’s grace for today is sufficient for today. He will supply sufficient grace for tomorrow, tomorrow. So don’t try to deal with what might happen tomorrow before tomorrow gets here. We may find that we have carried the weight of what we thought would happen tomorrow, but it never materializes. Just rest assured that His grace is sufficient for what we are facing at any given time, but not for what “may happen” sometime in the future.

The Apostle Paul had some problem that he described as a “thorn in the flesh.” He did not elaborate on what that thorn was, but he said that he prayed three times, asking God to remove it. God’s response to Paul was that He was not going to remove the thorn, but that His grace would be sufficient to carry it. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you have some “thorn”, and you have been asking God to remove it. Yet, you are still suffering the weight of that thorn. Rest assured: God’s grace is sufficient for you to bear it, and if, at some point in the future, God decides to remove it, you will find that He has used that thorn in ways to minister to others in ways He could not have had He removed the thorn at any previous time.

God always knows best; God always does best! And, yes, His grace is more than enough,