Temporary Trials...

One of my friend's sent me this devotion Friday because she knew I could use some encouragement. It's written by her uncle who is a Pastor in Florida. It's a little long but worth the read. I hope it encourages you today!

It’s quite difficult these days to begin and end the day with a smile.

Life is tough … depressing sometimes … challenging, to say the least..

The stock markets stinks. The housing market has a foul odor. The financial world is all amuck. Jobs are being lost. Houses are being foreclosed. Hours are being cut. Benefits are being trimmed. The national debt is in the trillions … rising every day. Our future and that of our children and grandchildren is being enslaved to debt. It brings agony. It brings pain. It messes with our minds. It bewilders our spirits. It causes heartache … troubled by the inability to do anything about it!

And worst of all … there seems to be no end. “Can it get any worse?” I hear it asked every day. I receive e-mails from distant friends … phone calls from members … anxious conversations in the supermarket, in the church parking lot, standing in line for the ATM. “Can it get any worse?” Probably not … we think. But then tomorrow comes and the reports are still bleak … the market still tanks … and another bailout fails.

It’s quite difficult these days to begin and end each day with a smile.

And yet … every morning my Yellow Lab, Molly, greets me with effervescent, tail-wagging joy … happy and anxious to greet the day regardless of the weather outside. Every morning as we sit for breakfast a friendly Blue Heron struts slowly across our bulkhead and dock looking for her breakfast in the shallow water. Every evening flocks of Egrets come floating in over the lake like handkerchiefs in the wind … seeking their nighttime roost in the trees that line its shore. Every afternoon Anhinga and Cormorants swim the lake ducking their heads beneath the surface in search of their supper. They all seem unconcerned … oblivious to the troubles we see and the hurts we feel.

Every day my grandchildren awaken and think of nothing but what’s for breakfast … and every night they go to bed tired from a day of school and play … thankfully unmindful, unaware, unconcerned about the worry, the danger, the problems we face as adults.

Don’t get me wrong! Molly has her troubled days too … when she is literally in the “dog house.” The wildlife around our lakeside home also have their days … when they can’t find that easy meal or their nighttime roost has already been taken or a nasty gator prowls the shore line. And my grandchildren have their days, too … when things don’t quite go their way and they get pouty and have to spend some time alone in their room … or when a neighbor kid gets a bit rough and plows over one with his bike … or when they don’t like what’s for supper and have to eat it anyway. But these concerns hardly match the intensity and magnitude of ours … after all “Nobody’s seen the troubles I’ve seen!”

It’s quite difficult these days to begin and end each day with a smile.

So what is a person to do? How is a Christian to act? What should my demeanor be? How can I keep a smile on my face?

In such times there is one certainty we would all do well to keep in mind: Life is a vapor! God’s Word often refers to the brevity of life. “You are a mist,” says James, “that appears for a little while and then vanishes” [James 4:14 ]. In essence, God is saying life is a like a puff of steam. You know the drill: take a drop of water … throw it on a hot skillet … stand back … and poof! It’s gone! That … says God … is life! It’s over in a flash!

I sometimes like to argue with God about that point. After all I am a pastor and I know about life and death. And there are times when life is certainly not much of a vapor … especially when it is tough! Days and weeks and months can drag on and on and on when life is tough. “It can last a long seventy or eighty years,” I say. To which God replies, “Let’s talk about it in a billion years.”

David has something to say about life as well. He says life is merely a breath. “The span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath” [Psalm 39:5]. Paul adds the thought that our afflictions are momentary: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” [II Corinthians 4:17]. “Momentary?” I ask God. “Why did Paul chose that word? His troubles were not here to day and gone tomorrow. They were like interminable … hardly momentary.”

I suspect God is trying to teach me a lesson. He’s trying to tell me something about the temporary nature of suffering, hardship and pain. He’s trying to encourage me through stressful, troubling times. He’s saying it might seem like a long struggle … but there is a little secret to all this … namely, that my understanding, my perception about suffering is flawed … incomplete. Troubles are temporary; they are fleeting … even vaporous. I need only hang on for a vapor’s length of time … and then I’m Home.

I’m struck by a line in the poem “The Thought of God” by Frederick William Farber (1814-1863): “Pain in itself not hard to bear, But hard to bear so long.” Whatever the circumstances of this poem … the pain of the poet is over! And from his new perspective … he understands why God used the phrase “momentary troubles.”

O Lord: I live always in pain, My life’s sad undersong,
Pain in itself not hard to bear, But hard to bear so long.
Little sometimes weighs more than much, When it has no relief,
A joyless life is worse to bear, Than one of active grief.

Hard for me to grasp … more difficult to understand … but, in truth, the Russian proverb “A day is long, but a life is short” is so very true!

I suspect I have some very long days ahead. But life is still short and it quickly passes. Best I keep in mind some of those divine, spiritual truths we pastors are prone to pass around.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also [Matthew 6:19 -21].
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged [Deuteronomy 31:8].

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [Philippians 4:6-7].

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed [II Corinthians 4:8-9].

The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble [Psalm 9:9].

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us [Romans 8:35 -37].

I sense I have a long way to go in keeping up my smile. But I’m working on it. There’s a lot of confusion, incomprehension, bewilderment, uncertainty … and yes, even some anger. But God’s Word tempers all those feelings and thankfully corrals the emotions … while calming the anxiety and even encouraging a smile … if ever so slight.

May our gracious God keep your spirit focused on the awesome, eternal truth: Because he lives … we can face tomorrow!

(written by Pastor Rick)