In Troubled Times

The first signs of trouble are up the road and mostly invisible.  The trouble itself is around some bend in the road and holds not only the dreaded trouble, but the trouble that is given birth in our spirit from what might be, or what could be.  In the beginning the trouble has little to do with what is, but mostly with what might be.  When some wind of adversity hits us in the face, we can only imagine that a harder wind is waiting to blow.  Bad become worse and worse becomes the worst.  Such is how trouble comes.   

As we anticipate and feel the headwinds of trouble, there comes to us this word of Jesus we have heard quoted a thousand times.  Not only have we heard it all those times, but we ourselves have repeated it when the pressure around us and in us begins to build.  The improbable words of Jesus are found in the first verse of the fourteenth chapter of John.  "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  (You) believe in God, believe also in me."  "Trust Me," is what He said.  "Take Me at my Word," is His Word to us.  Over and over through our journey toward Home, we are faced with the challenging question about Jesus.  We seldom voice it to others, but we often speak it to ourselves.  "Can this Jesus be taken seriously?  Is He really Who He says He is?"   

Our answer is going to make all the difference in how trouble affects us.  When we run into bone deep trouble, it is not just an academic exercise, but the difference between living and dying and dying and living again.  At the end of the journey, the faith with which we started is still what will sustain and deliver us.  Of course, the end of the journey faith is not the same as the one known at the beginning because He has led us through dark valleys and has enabled us to see the enduring and eternal power of faith in Him.