Good OR Bad?

All things work together for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

These trees fascinate me. I have seen lots of them while living in Eastern Carolina, and I have learned about these "knees" that stick up out of the water. To the untrained eye, it looks like a mass of trouble, like parts of the tree tried to grow and couldn't. These nubs stick up all around the base of the tree like a group of dwarfs waiting to chop you off at the legs.

In actuality, this is the way that the tree saves itself during flooding. When a flood occurs, these "knees" stick up out of the water and let the tree breathe. Although they look like trouble, they are actually life-saving inventions. You can see from this other picture how healthy the trees actually are.
So very often I feel like I am surrounded by trouble, things don't look so good. If you walked past me and saw me close up, you might say I was drowning. But when you step back and look at the whole picture, you see that the event that seems to be killing me is actually helping me to grow.
So often my camera seems to be on zoom instead of panoramic view. I need to look at the big picture and realize that God allows me to struggle so that I can survive the floods.

Romans 8 The Message
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son...... So what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?....... Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.... None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing- nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable- absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.