In addition, Josiah removed the mediums, the spiritists, household idols, images, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this in order to carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the Lord’s temple. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.

In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of His great burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had provoked Him with. (2 Kings 23:24-26)

We can do what we know is right and still not get the results we want. In fact, it happens often. God’s perspective is bigger, broader, and more complete. We connect two things together–our good efforts with a bad outcome–and declare it (and even God) to be unfair. But we often connect the wrong things. We don’t complain too much when our bad collides with grace and results in what seems to be good. We have a need to explain the unexplainable and connect the dots in the wrong order. It’s like we try to make a picture out of the thousands of dots on the page without an idea of which dot follows which. But we certainly try. And sometimes, we force the dots to create a picture that looks beautiful but is nowhere close to what the picture is supposed to be.

Instead, we could be faithful and patient. And let God do what He does best: connecting the dots to make the picture He knows is the most beautiful for us across our entire lives.