Most of us are familiar with Bugs Bunny and the popular Looney Tunes cartoons. We may not be as familiar with the artist who made these characters famous. Chuck Jones was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic animated cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, and Porky Pig, among others.* In his autobiography, Chuck Amuck, Jones gave interesting insight on the development of his artistic talent. His father was an unsuccessful businessman in California in the 1920s. Every new business venture included purchasing new stationery and pencils imprinted with the company name. The failure of each business resulted in stacks of useless stationery and pencils which would be given to his children, requiring them to use up all the material as quickly as possible. Chuck, with a plentiful supply of high-quality paper and pencils, would draw constantly. Later, in an art school class, the professor informed the students they each had 100,000 bad drawings in them they must first get past before they could possibly draw anything worthwhile. Jones recounted years later this statement was a great encouragement to him, knowing he was well past the 200,000 mark having used up all that stationery!
I thought it was interesting how the failure of Chuck Jones' father's became the catalyst for his career. Jones would go on to win three Academy Awards for his work and his legacy in animation is rivaled only by Walt Disney.
God's Providence
This had me thinking about Romans 8:32, which reads:
“All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
I'm not sure if Chuck Jones was a person of faith, but for those of us who are “finding ourselves in the story of God'' this verse applies to our life. God uses every circumstance for his purposes; there's no such thing as a coincidence. Rather it is God's providence. Providence, when it pertains to God, means his power is sustaining and guiding human destiny. He directs the affairs of this world and of our lives to fulfill his redemptive purposes. It's almost as if God is the master chess player who's moving the pieces around the board and arranging things in perfect order to accomplish his will. And God's will is always for his glory and our good.
I've become convinced that God most often works according to his divine providence. Scripture reveals God as One who specializes in the miraculous, and it's common for us to downplay these providential acts. We'd prefer God to do something spectacular and change our situations immediately. Though He is perfectly able to do this, we often overlook the incremental steps He is taking to get us into position to experience a breakthrough. These incremental steps are necessary because God isn't only working on our behalf. He's also acting on the behalf of others and guiding the affairs of the world to accomplish his will. I’d love to think God is prioritizing what he does for my benefit, yet he desires more to accomplish his goals and I am simply a part of those purposes.
Overlooking Providence
One reason we may fail to notice what God is doing in our circumstances is that it’s not always as observable as we’d like. In fact, I’ve discovered that God does some of his best work behind the scenes and out of sight. There's a popular worship song called Way Maker* and the bridge goes like this:
“Even when I don't see it you're working, even when I don't feel it you're working, You never stop, you never stop working”.
God knows all and sees all while we have definite limitations! In fact, our vision is usually very myoptic–we only see what’s right in front of us demanding our immediate attention. It's easy to second-guess what God is doing in our lives, yet we must recognize we simply do not see the bigger picture. Our understanding of what's going on in and around our lives is limited. Proverbs tells us, “Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways he will direct our paths”. When we trust in ourselves we will always come up short and are certain to become impatient with what God is working out unbeknown to us. Not only does God know all things, but he also knows what's best for us. He's already multiple moves ahead of what we may be planning next!
Trust the Process
Very much like Chuck Jones’ father, we may often experience failure, struggle, and hardship. Yet, we never know what God may have in store for us if we trust him and persevere through the not so good times. He is working all things together for good and I’ve learned he is faithful to his word! Trust the process, God will get you through.
Even when we don’t see it, he’s working.
Notes
1. Wikipedia
2. Way Maker–Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, © 2016 Integrity Music Europe (Admin. by Integrity Music)