It's For Your Own Good: Day 2

Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your own good that I am going away…I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

John 16:6, 12

I can empathize with the disciples’ fear and confusion when they were told by Jesus that all the rules were changing, but—trust Him—it would all be for the best. They didn’t want another, different “best,” they wanted a continuation of the present situation.

Jesus said that His going away was “good.” Other translations offer words such as, “better,” “expedient,” “advantage,” instead. In the original Greek, the word is transliterated as symphonia, and its underlying meaning is of a coming together. Naturally, we think of our English word, “symphony.”

Have you ever listened to an orchestra warming up before a performance? No one could mistake the confusion of scales, trills, arpeggios and oom-pahs as a selection from the upcoming performance; yet all the instruments, people, talent and training are present there on that stage. It is only when the conductor takes the podium, raises his baton and each musician plays the part written for them that the composer’s vision will become a reality.

The purpose of a symphony is to play the music and share the beauty. The purpose of God’s Word is not the learning of precepts and passages any more than the final result of a dedicated musician’s study and skill is the solitary practice session.

Only when we allow the truth of Scripture to be played out in our life, to be seen and heard by those around us, that we can both understand and experience how all the parts fit together, how important our contribution is to the beauty of the whole and begin to understand the genius of the Composer.

Nancy Shirah