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Lemons and Prepositions: The Small Words Matter, Part 2



A few years ago, I had the opportunity to coach a girl’s running club at my daughter’s school. As a part of the program, the 9-11 year-olds were building miles toward a 5K, which might have been the hardest physical accomplishment they had ever attempted.

At one point in the 12-week training, a girl asked me, “Do we have to run a 5K?”  I answered with her own words, but with one minor adjustment: “No, we GET to run a 5K!” Switching just one word changed the perception of the entire thought. 

If we HAVE to run a 5K, that makes it an obligation, a duty… a chore. 

If we GET to run a 5K, that makes it an opportunity; something to look forward to. 

That one change of a verb altered her entire attitude toward the race. 

Our attitude toward and understanding of Scripture can likewise hang on surprisingly small words.  Consider Romans 8:28. You’ve probably heard this a thousand times. 

We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose.

What does that verse sound like in your ears?

Maybe it is hopeful. Life has dumped on you, but in spite of it all, you remain confident that God will take all the bad and turn it into good (whatever “good” means). Or that’s what you say to someone enduring one of life’s great trials. It’s a sanitized “If life gives you lemons, God will make lemonade.”

Maybe it’s a lie. You love God and in spite of it, life has dumped all over you, time and time again, with no relief in sight and no apparent “good” to hang your hat on. And you’re supposed to believe he’s going to work this all out for some cosmic benevolent purposes? Beyond that, “Well you just don’t see it yet; be patient!” sounds a bit hollow and is often said with the confidence of a guarantee we don’t have a right to make.

It’s one thing to try to encourage a young teenager with Romans 8:28 when he just failed his driver’s exam. God will bring good from this! You’ll be better in the long-run!

It is quite another thing if that same teenager whose mom, riddled with stage-4 breast cancer, has just been received by Hospice. At that point, wielding Romans 8:28 like that becomes spiritual malpractice and pastoral abuse.

Maybe Paul is dumb. Or maybe God is a liar. Or maybe Scripture is unreliable. 

Or maybe we’re just using the wrong word. 

There is mounting evidence that our English translations have inserted a “for” where there should be a “with.” It’s hidden in a footnote in the NIV and the newest edition of the NASB:

God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good.

The entire meaning of Romans 8:28 hangs on the right preposition!

Girls don’t HAVE to run a 5K, they GET to. With that small change, an obligation becomes an opportunity. Likewise, turning “for” into “with” takes a promise we can’t guarantee and turns it into an invitation. 

For the sake of a “for” we have committed ourselves—and encouraged others—to passively wait for some vague, perhaps arbitrarily defined, “good” to spontaneously emerge from the ashes of our suffering. We have become satisfied to sit by and piously fold our hands, hoping for a positive outcome while God—independent of us—takes our lemons and turns them into lemonade.

Don’t get me wrong: Christian history is littered with stories of exactly this: God turning adverse situations into things he can use for his glory and our good. And we are right to pray to those ends, and even look for whatever blessing might come from our pain. But part of the Christian life involves cooperation between the human and the divine. There are some things only God can do—raising the dead is high on that list. Still, Romans 8:28 forces us to consider that in addition to the things only God can do, he invites us (expects us?) to participate with him in bringing about some good, even from bad situations. 

If we are hesitant to acknowledge this, it is probably from a Protestant fear to deny God his sovereignty, but not from Scripture. NT Wright suggests that perhaps God’s sovereignty is best expressed in and through his people, when we join him in what he is doing—the exact point those ancient manuscripts of Romans are trying to make.

When a loved one endures some trial or hardship, we can do better than to quote Romans 8:28 at them, lend them our sympathy, and piously wait for God to take lemons and make lemonade. Maybe he will. Or maybe he gives us sugar and a wooden spoon and expects us to start stirring. 

Absolutely, there are times when God works on our behalf, doing something we can’t do for ourselves. Yet perhaps more often than we are willing to admit, God works together with us and invites us to create something good with him.  

We don’t have to make lemonade; we get to!

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