Thursday 28 December 2017

The Root cause of all good things!

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

I got acquainted with the words "root cause" so much in my work (thanks to my on-call cycles!), that the connotation it brings with it always has me thinking that something went wrong somewhere. When a Severity 2 ticket dings, especially after I push in a one-liner code change that I thought was too trivial and innocuous to be "tested", I invariably get into panic mode. I hope and even pray, that my little code fix does not turn out to be the culprit, or the "root cause" for the high impact issue. If every negatively impacting issue has a "root cause", what about all those other times when those issues don't occur or when something good happens? Those "good" times should also then have their own good reasons - or root causes. Those potential issues that could've happened, didn't happen because someone took enough care to avoid the pitfalls (In software development terms, I'd equate it with 'some disciplined developer diligently tested his/her code before shipping it!' :)). And those good things that happen, didn't just appear out of thin air, but came into existence because someone made a deliberate attempt through their efforts, to create something of value to those around them.

This led me to thinking about those times, when we tend to feel that there’s nothing exciting happening in life, when in fact there's Someone guarding us from all negative stuff that we're vulnerable to, and that Someone is orchestrating a million other things that we can't see or understand, to cause things to happen for our good as Romans 8:28 says. The Greatest Designer and Programmer of all times - who's never required a QA cycle for even the complex DNA code that He came up with - well, He is the root cause of all good things that are happening and will continue to happen. Take any good thing that's happened - Keep asking the 'Why's' and you'll finally arrive at the Source of all things (John 1:3 - All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made). And all good things we've done in the past or the ones that we're capable of doing in the future – are possible through Him alone.

2 Corinthians 9:8 - And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Philippians 2:13 - for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

And what a privilege to know this great God - the Grand Designer and the real root cause of every good thing that's ever been - as our Best Friend and as our Guide!

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