Trouble!

-the problem of personal sin,

-the need for Divine forgiveness,

-the method by which God underwrote that pardon

-and the requirement of repentance leading to salvation by faith through God’s grace.

Then there’s the "yes, but's. One of these is the objection raised by our experiencing adversity. The title of a course on knowing God for teenagers grabbed my attention: "So if God loves me that much how come I can't get my locker open?"

Struggle and pain are a part of all people’s lives.



Let there be no surprise that the oldest book in the Bible addresses the problem of undeserved affliction. Job 5:7 is a melancholy comment: "As surely as sparks fly upward we are born to trouble."

That contradicted the world view of those days. Cicero in about 70 BC was still claiming: "A life of peace, purity, and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age."

The Bible’s teaching is closer to father of modern psychology, Carl Jung, when he claimed that nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

The food for your soul today is the Bible testifies to a God who walks you through troubles rather than offers a primrose path to a few chosen favorites. Can you see what Henry Kaiser meant by: "Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes."

Meditate on Psalm 71: "Who O God is like You? Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, You will restore my life again."

This is not a flippant article calling you to cheer up because the struggles you face are common and that they have little significance. I have been at the bedside of my pain-wracked son facing the prospect of his never walking again. I have wrung my hands in the company of a second son so full of despair that the loaded gun in his hand felt like a way out.

These and many more troubles make me agree with Henry W Beecher: "Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things."

I'll tell you this too; troubles will change or pass. Charlie Chaplain rightly observed: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."

The Bible noted that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance (and I can't read that without hearing the guitar strumming of The Seekers).

I thought recently of a comment by a Jewish prophet. President Bush was saying how he didn't want or choose to be a "war president." Jeremiah intoned: "We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror."

Even if that is to be our common suffering in the first decades of this century there is still a way to lead healthy lives.

STEP ONE - deal with only one calamity at a time, but do deal with it. "Never bear more than one trouble at a time.

Some people bear three kinds - all they've had, all they have now, and all they expect to have," said E.E. Hale.

Be angry, cry, mope or even try and wish it away, but in the end embrace the sorrow, drink the cup and look up to God in your deep furrow of acceptance. It’s the only way I know to get the door of your heart open to the inflow of the strength He’s promised.

STEP TWO - tell a trusted friend, and I do mean one with skin on! I like Dinah Shore’s advice: "Trouble is part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough."

Humble yourself and confess your need. Tell it once, clearly and concisely to a pal. Don't wallow but lean. Invite them to ask you in future days how you're doing.

Hardships come. God holds out a hand to you. TAKE IT.