What did god intend?

When I’m feeling a bit down or disappointed or annoyed or unhappy, I often sit down and write. About something positive. I try to buoy my spirits. And think optimistically. That’s how I turn a downer into an upper. And I tell myself that I wouldn’t have done this if not for having experienced negative feelings. In essence, I make something good spring from something bad. It’s like my father’s suicide. A long, long time ago. Exactly 62 years ago today. When I was still a teen-ager. It seemed like a bad or cataclysmic event. But when I look at the event over the long-term, the suicide and my father’s absence from this world opened the way to good things. Pleasant and beneficial events in our lives that might not have otherwise occurred. I often get back to this theme. Because it fascinates me. It’s as if god has a master plan. In which a tragedy is transformed. Ultimately leading to something magnificent. But we humans directly involved in the event are too close to it to see how the common good was positively served. I ask myself, what did god intend? Maybe it was to serve the common good rather than the individual good. –Jim Broede