It's never as bad as it seems!
Written by Dr C Le Roux
I know that in life there will be sickness, devastation, disappointments, heartache
- it's a given. What's not a given, is the way you choose to get through it all.
If you look hard enough, you can always find the bright side.
Rashida Jones
The world these days is full of bad news, a high rate of crime, economies on the brink of collapse, nature constantly adding to the chaos, earthquakes, and flooding with one disaster after another. It's time of trouble all right, and for us it may sometimes be hard to believe - but it never is as bad as it seems. Let me illustrate with a joke.
Way out west in America, of course, a cowboy is driving down a road, his dog riding in the back of his pickup truck, his faithful horse in the trailer behind. As he takes a curve on the highway he suddenly loses control of the vehicle and has a terrible accident.
Sometime later, a state police officer comes on the scene. A great lover of animals, the officer's attention is first drawn to the horse. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries, he draws his service revolver and puts the animal out of its misery.
Then walking around the accident he finds the dog, also critically wounded and whining miserably in pain. This grips his heart and he ends the dog's suffering as well.
Finally the police officer locates the cowboy, who has suffered multiple fractures and can barely breath. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks.
The cowboy takes one look at the smoking gun in the trooper's hand and quickly replies, with unexpected energy, "Never felt better!"
We are pilgrims in this dangerous world, which will wound us at times so badly it seems unbearable - yet we have this promise from God, "In the time of trouble He will hide me". It's because my real life, my true life is in Him and with Him no matter what happens to me here. So when the world approaches me with smoking gun, ready to put me out of my misery, I can find 'a supernatural strength', and simply say, "I never felt better!"
Psalm 27:4-5
"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in his dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent and set me high upon a rock."