When Life is Hard

              Some weeks in your life live on forever in your memory, either because they were so great or so bad.  Without going into detail, let me just say that I will remember last week for a long time, but not because it was good. 

That, then, brings up an interesting question for people of faith:  “What do you do when life is hard?” 

    

              Some people throw in the towel.  Their thinking seems to be, “I have been faithful and God has not protected me.  Therefore, either God is not there at all, or if he is there he is mean and uncaring”.  That thinking, though, rests on an assumption that God’s only purpose is to cater to our wants and desires as if he is somehow our “Holy Butler”.  What if that is wrong?  Maybe (as we see with our own kids) being “overprotective” is the worst thing God could do for us.  Certainly, some of the most people in the Bible faced “ups” and “downs” in life.  Even Jesus faced times of sadness and struggle, so if God’s own son was not immune from it, what would make us think that we should be?

            That, then, brings us back to the question:  “What do you do when life is hard?”  Part of the answer, at least, can be found in the Old Testament book of “Psalms”.

            Psalms is the “hymn book” of ancient Israel and there is one type of Psalm that outnumbers all the others: “Laments”.  To “lament” means to “to mourn aloud, to wail” or “to express sorrow”.  More than 50% of the Psalms say things like: How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? (Psalm 13:2); I have suffered much (Psalm 119:107);  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief (Psalm 31:9): In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears (Psalm 18:6).

            The thing to note is that the writers have not stopped talking to God.  In spite of their problems, they continue to believe that God will see, hear and act.

            When the storms of life come (and they will), letting go of God and his promises only compounds your trouble.  The thing to do is to hold on even more tightly until the storm passes.

            Fortunately, God is a master at working in the storm.  

Remember, every miracle ever performed started with someone who had a problem.