Right — Wrong — Same

Some­times the right thing is the wrong thing but the same thing at the same time. It is one of the traits of the uni­verse and an appar­ent para­dox of the Cre­ator. The cru­ci­fix­ion of Jesus was the wrong thing under the right cir­cum­stances. It does not make sense on the sur­face, but it worked. The most hor­ri­ble things raise the con­scious­ness lev­els that inspire sac­ri­fi­cial liv­ing for the bet­ter­ment of others.

Spank­ing a child is so wrong, but when done in the proper con­text it can save their lit­tle lives. Pruning plants and trees makes them pro­duce far more. That’s right. Intro­duc­ing a lit­tle death into life makes things live more. Jesus used this as a metaphor con­cern­ing the spir­i­tual life. Our lim­i­ta­tions stim­u­late the spirit within. Even the worst lim­i­ta­tions can pro­duce the great­est peo­ple (Helen Keller).

Some of the truly wrong things in his­tory have proven to be the best things in the long run. The reverse is some­times just as true. Some of the noblest efforts have had the most dis­as­trous results. (Sav­ing the planet does not mean hav­ing to kill all of the peo­ple on it.) Deadly vol­ca­noes can pro­duce life-giving islands.

The Bible is filled with so many hor­ri­ble things that seemed to have no pos­i­tive out­comes, but we can­not see the truly grand scope of his­tory. We are caught some­where in the mid­dle. Even veg­e­tar­i­ans have to kill to live. They con­sume bil­lions of microbes in those fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles. The stuff you smell rot­ting in trash cans on a summer’s day means that you have con­sumed parts of some­thing now dead so you can live.

In pol­i­tics, the right things are often the wrong things. No uni­ver­sal good is enacted with­out indi­vid­u­als or groups becom­ing vic­tims. The harder we try, the worse it gets. Thank­fully, in spite of our best and worst efforts, life some­how goes on.

The worst thing that can hap­pen to you today may be the best thing that ever could hap­pen. That’s life.