When ‘No you can’t’ is OK

1972 was a significant year for me. It was the year I qualified as a teacher and started teaching. Rachel and I got married and bought our first house together. I didn’t know what life had in store for me, but there were endless possibilities and opportunities.

Today, fifty-four years later I can look back at good things and bad things, successes and failures, joys and sorrows. There have been things I have done, things I haven’t done, things I wished I’d done, and things I will never do.

Today I read 1 Chronicles 17. King David is a good king who has brought peace and stability to Israel. He’s living in a grand palace and thinks it would be a good idea to build a temple for his God…

God tells the prophet Nathan that he’s to tell David that he’s not the one to build the temple. One of his sons will be the temple-builder.

David’s got several choices. He can build the temple regardless – because after all it was a good idea. He can be angry or grumpy and throw his royal toys out of the pram. He can argue with God that perhaps on this occasion God hasn’t got it right. He can create an alternative building project…

…What David chooses to do is to accept God’s decision and thank his God for all that He has achieved, the promises He has kept, the good things David has received from His God.   

It’s easy to look back with regrets – poor decisions I’ve made, decisions others have made, the way life has worked out. I can look at my present situation and wish it were different. I can live with anger, disappointment, frustration…

Or, like David, I can accept the way my life has turned out, thanking my God, looking back and being grateful for the good things from my past, appreciating what I have now, and getting on with life as it is, not as I might like it to be.