“I have told you these
things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
“…ya got
trouble, folks! Right here in River City. Trouble with a capital ‘T’ and that
rhymes with ‘P’…”[1]
(and with B, C, D, E, G, V, and Z,) and those stand for less than a third of
the possible initials for trouble. Oh yes, we have trouble. Right now, specifically,
I’m having trouble with keeping the tone of this blog serious. Trouble is a
serious subject. Our lives are full of trouble like little vermin, breeding
thousands from one seemingly overnight. We want to transport them all to a
Klingon ship where they’ll be “no tribble at all.”
Troubles come in all shapes and sizes, there are TROUBLES, Troubles, troubles, right here in River City. As often as not the “horse” that trouble rides in on is often a person who we thought loved us or the person who is offering to fix our troubles. As difficult as the TROUBLE is, it’s often the troubles that derail us the most. They seem to swarm like locusts. Each one doesn’t eat much, but put them all together than nothing green and growing remains.
The trouble with troubles is that, at the most basic, troubles are anything that doesn’t please us or that isn’t the way we want them to be. So, for you, snow and cold may be trouble, but for me, heat is trouble. My father thinks that having a dog is trouble. I agree. He thinks it’s “too much trouble” and I think it’s “worth the trouble.” Certainly, there are bigger troubles that are more universally called “trouble.”
When Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world, He wasn’t condemning us to them, or wishing them on us. He was stating a fact. If trouble is anything that doesn’t please us, then the only way to avoid having trouble would be to be God. In fact, I would say that even God has troubles. His troubles don’t trouble Him because He planned for them, He knows they are very temporary and has already resolved them with the Cross. Trouble don’t derail Him like they do us. He is sovereign over them and causes them to work together for good for Himself and for those who are called according to His will, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t troubles.
We aren’t God (obviously and thankfully!) Trouble is our friend in that it reminds us of that truth (OK, sometimes, too often.) Trouble is also our friend because it is the resistance that strengthens all sorts of muscles: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…. Trouble is our friend because it brings us closer to others. It causes us to draw closer to God in a way that nothing else can – friendship forged in fire, dunked in cold water, returned to the fire and beaten between a hammer and anvil before being dunked in cold water again. Troubles temper us. As the skin horse said, they make us real.
No, I don’t cheer when troubles come to someone – especially not when they come to me. I sometimes jeer at the trouble or at myself (particularly the smaller troubles.) Those of you who are friends on Facebook sometimes find posts from me poking fun at a trouble or at myself. That sort of humor helps me keep them in perspective. Prayer does that even better. Troubles are like vampires that suck the life (The life is in the blood, after all) out of a person. That’s not good – except that it leaves room for a transfusion of the blood of Christ.
Troubles come in all shapes and sizes, there are TROUBLES, Troubles, troubles, right here in River City. As often as not the “horse” that trouble rides in on is often a person who we thought loved us or the person who is offering to fix our troubles. As difficult as the TROUBLE is, it’s often the troubles that derail us the most. They seem to swarm like locusts. Each one doesn’t eat much, but put them all together than nothing green and growing remains.
The trouble with troubles is that, at the most basic, troubles are anything that doesn’t please us or that isn’t the way we want them to be. So, for you, snow and cold may be trouble, but for me, heat is trouble. My father thinks that having a dog is trouble. I agree. He thinks it’s “too much trouble” and I think it’s “worth the trouble.” Certainly, there are bigger troubles that are more universally called “trouble.”
When Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world, He wasn’t condemning us to them, or wishing them on us. He was stating a fact. If trouble is anything that doesn’t please us, then the only way to avoid having trouble would be to be God. In fact, I would say that even God has troubles. His troubles don’t trouble Him because He planned for them, He knows they are very temporary and has already resolved them with the Cross. Trouble don’t derail Him like they do us. He is sovereign over them and causes them to work together for good for Himself and for those who are called according to His will, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t troubles.
We aren’t God (obviously and thankfully!) Trouble is our friend in that it reminds us of that truth (OK, sometimes, too often.) Trouble is also our friend because it is the resistance that strengthens all sorts of muscles: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…. Trouble is our friend because it brings us closer to others. It causes us to draw closer to God in a way that nothing else can – friendship forged in fire, dunked in cold water, returned to the fire and beaten between a hammer and anvil before being dunked in cold water again. Troubles temper us. As the skin horse said, they make us real.
No, I don’t cheer when troubles come to someone – especially not when they come to me. I sometimes jeer at the trouble or at myself (particularly the smaller troubles.) Those of you who are friends on Facebook sometimes find posts from me poking fun at a trouble or at myself. That sort of humor helps me keep them in perspective. Prayer does that even better. Troubles are like vampires that suck the life (The life is in the blood, after all) out of a person. That’s not good – except that it leaves room for a transfusion of the blood of Christ.
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