Our entire lives are made up of good times and stressful
times. Life is wonderful when we are in
the good times, and life is difficult when the stressful times take over our
lives. And sometimes, those good times
and those stressful times can be so close together it feels like life is a roller-coaster, one moment you are soaring high, and the next moment feels like
an uncontrolled plummet. Personally I
like roller coasters, they can make for an exciting time, but I don’t think
anyone would want to live on one permanently.
One of the dangers of Life can be looking at the
rollercoaster of life and misinterpreting why some times go up and other times
go down. The World tells us that when
things are going well it is because we are doing the right things, that we are
in control of our future, and we are making it better. Its only when things are going bad that the
world considers getting religion.
Contracts that are broken because of “an act of God” assume that God is
directly responsible for the bad things that have just happened to you, that
you had no control at all. Somehow for
the world it is the stressful times that God is in control and thus everything
is spiraling downward. Even the world’s
advice reflects this, “it’s not my fault but I can make it better”
mentality. “If life gives you lemons,
make lemonade” only emphasizes that it’s not your fault that things are
difficult, but if you work hard enough you can improve your situation. If only it were that easy.
For Christians the picture is completely reversed. It is when God is in control that things can
go upward, and when we attempt to be in control that is when things spiral
downward. When Job went to God with his
plea saying that he had done nothing wrong, God asked him, “Where were you when
I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me,
if you understand.” (Job 38:4) We don’t understand the working of the world, so
how can we expect to control the things happen to us? Yes there are stressful things in the world,
but that is because of the sin of man.
Our sin drags us downward, and we cannot lift ourselves out of the pit
through our own strength. But through
our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a savior that lifts us up and comforts us with
the knowledge that we are forgiven, and through him we have Life eternal, a
life that will have no more downward plunges.
Trust in the Lord, for he has done marvelous things.
God’s Blessings,
Vicar Shupe
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