WHEN LIFE COMES TUMBLING DOWN
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.-Psalm 46:1
Trouble eventually knocks at everyone’s door. Sometimes it doesn’t bother to knock, it bangs the door down –ruthlessly, violently, unexpected and unwanted.
Job’s plaintive warning echoes across the centuries: “Man is born to trouble…” Sometimes it is as a far off shadow, but inexorably it moves closer and will surely come to our door.
So what do we do when trouble comes, when life comes tumbling down about us? Do we seek to run from it? Refuse to face reality? Give up?
Any glib and simple answers about trouble and tragedy just do not ring true in a world where headlines scream to us of the millions of starving, the plight of refugees, the inhumanity of the holocaust, the slaughters by terrorists, and the nuclear nightmare that haunts every new generation.
“Bad things do not happen for nay good reason,” states Rabbi Harold Kusner in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. “But, “ He tells us, “we can redeem these tragedies from senselessness by imposing meaning on them. The question we should be asking is not, “Why did this happen to me? That is rally unanswerable. A better question would be, ‘Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?”
The psalmist invites us to put our trust in God as our refuge and strength. The God who cares is there to help and to heal when life comes tumbling down around us.
TODAY GOD IS REACHING OUT TO YOU. WILL YOU REACH OUT TO HIM?
THE CRISIS OF CHANGE
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.-Hebrew 13:8
Many of us can remember when “setting the world on fire” was merely a figure of speech, only preachers were preparing people to travel to outer space, a floppy dist was something you consulted your chiropractor about, and people were smarter than machines. Dynamic change is a trademark of our times. As Bob Dylan sang, “The times, they are a changin’!”
It has often been said since September 11, 2001, that life will never be same again. In a matter of minutes, our nation was changed from a country of peaceful security to a place vulnerable to the monstrous acts of terrorism and threatened with weapons of mass destruction.
The crisis of change also occurs on a personal level. Today we may march forth in health and vigour. Suddenly, sickness unhinges our knees and we become horizontal citizens of the sickroom, unwilling initiates into the fellowship of pain. Misfortune can overtake us in a moment, shatter our dreams, and bring us to the brink of desperation.
Alvin Toffler’s popular book, Future Shock, was written to “help us survive our collision course with tomorrow” as we face “death of permanence.” It was designed as a textbook with strategies for survival for those overwhelmed by change and its impacts.
But, of course, we already have a textbook for coping with the crisis change. The Bible provides the needed survival strategies and tells us of the One who remains unchanging in our changing world.
IN THE SWIRL OF CHANGE, COMMIT TO CLING TO THE ONE WHO NEVER CHANGES FOR YOUR STRENGTH.
THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR
Therefore we will not fear. –Psalm 46:2
When the forecast calls for a storm, ships need a sure anchor; trees, deep roots; persons, a firm foundation of faith.
Faith in god becomes the antidote to fear. Like the psalmist, we, too, can declare in the middle of life’s crises, “Therefore we will not fear.” Throughout the Bible there are 365 “fear nots” or its equivalent. God has given us one for every day of the year!
A symbol of arrogance is found in the epigram carved over a doorway on the Titanic: “Not even God can sink this ship.” Its blasphemy still rots at the bottom of the Atlantic. Modern man is infected with the myth of self-sufficiency, of autonomy. The psalmist reminds us that we are insufficient in our own strength alone, that we need God as our refuge and strength for the trials and testings that surely will come our way.
This 46th Psalm became a major source of comfort and courage in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001. The psalm was read on televised programs across the country. As described in the psalm, those things that had once seemed so secure came tumbling down upon us. Life could never again be the same. More than ever we have needed the assuring word that God is an ever-present help in trouble, and because He is with us, we need not fear.
Sooner or later stressful situations will beset each life, some striking us as emotional earthquakes.
WHEN SHATTERING EXPERIENCES COME INTO YOUR LIFE, IN PLACE OF FEAR GOD WILL GIVE YOU COURAGE AND COMFORT.
ABIDE WITH ME
Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. –Luke 24:29
In one of the most beautiful accounts in the New Testament, following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. For them, it was a road of disappointment, of heartbreak, of defeat. Their bright dreams of tomorrow had been turned into the grim nightmare of Calvary.
They did not recognize Christ, and as they approached their destination He seemed ready to take leave of them and go on. But following His luminous discourse with them, they urged Him to stay with them as evening was falling.
To each life there comes the time when the shadows of evening fall upon our pathway, and we need the presence of the lord. It is evening for our world when hope seems hard to find. It is evening for our families when troubles come. It is evening for us when we experience loss, illness, grief, or tragedy. And nightfall often comes with death.
When the evening times of life come, we would ask the risen Lord, as did the disciples of old, “Abide with us.” His presence sustains us and His promise stretches past the darkness into the brightness of day. As those two companions of old, we ,too, will rejoice in the glow of His presence as He turns our Good Friday into Easter Sunday.
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
TAKE A MOMENT TO STAND AND READ ALOUD THIS PRAYER.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
If a man dies, will he live again? –Job 14:14
Job asked the universal question. He put into words the yearning of all humanity.
This ancient question echoes across the centuries and remains the central question of life. Inscriptions on tombs of tribes extinct for centuries offer mute testimony to man’s ancient quest for immortality.
Posed as an anxious question, Job referred to death as “the king of terrors” and “a journey of not return”. Death imposes for many a certain fear and anxiety. The question expose Job’s hope and quest for immortality.
The schools of philosophy cannot answer Job’s question. It is beyond the realm of science and technology. This ancient, anxious, and argued question finds its answer only in Christ. The Risen Lord alone could declare with ultimate authority: “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). The resurrection of Jesus Christ once and for all indisputably answered Job’s age-old question, “If a man dies, will he live again?”
Beethoven’s 6th symphony sounds the crash of the storm, followed by the first tremulous notes of new hope, broadening into a song of thanksgiving. That is something of what happened between Good Friday and Easter. And because of that, when storm and death strike, we have a hope that is an anchor for the soul.
Christ’s resurrection solved the riddle of death. It means that the worst has been met and conquered, and no matter what, the last word will be victory.
YOU CAN BE CONFIDENT IN CHRIST THAT DEATH IS NOT THE END BUT THE BEGINNING IN ETERNITY.
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