6-28-21<\/p>\n
Whoo, what a week. Surely it was not this way with every visitor or reader here, but it seems like everyone I know was coping with problems, challenges, and crises that are somewhere between bad and worse. Friends, myself, acquaintances.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t make a list, because I don\u2019t have enough pencils, but\u2026 relationships; health; financial; a child in peril; employment; betrayal; bitter gossip; a neighbor child\u2019s drowning accident; breakup of a family; addiction; clinical depression. Friends shared so many things with me, helpless but not hopeless; and I cried on a couple shoulders too.<\/p>\n
Amazing. Maybe Satan is getting out of the lockdown too. I want to be careful not to wallow in self-pity, and, certainly, I despise \u201cnegative confession.\u201d There were blessings this week, too \u2013 for all of us \u2013 and I, for one was refreshed and encouraged on the faculty of a (Zoom-virtual) Christian Writers Conference. Fantastic reports, the glow of fatherhood, about my son and daughter doing well in their callings.<\/p>\n
We must always have clear eyes and remember the right priorities.<\/p>\n
If there are times we don\u2019t feel like praising God\u2026 let me state the truth, not if but when the times come when we don\u2019t feel like praising God, THEN is when we must do it<\/em>. Praising Him for, maybe, little and mundane things will lead us to remember greater blessings; and then we will humbly thank Him for the uncountable and unspeakable glories He has gifted us with; and \u2013 every time \u2013 we will soon enter into His courts with praise.<\/p>\n I have always thought that\u2019s what that phrase means in the Bible \u2013 the \u201csacrifice of praise.\u201d It does work. When you don\u2019t feel like it, DO IT, and you will feel like it, very soon.<\/p>\n God\u2019s arithmetic can be funny \u2013 naw; not funny, inscrutable. God\u2019s ways are His own, and unknowable. And, frankly, having to seek the Everlasting Help in Times of Trouble; or trust Him when we cannot know what awaits us\u2026 keeps us on our knees, so to speak. Reaching out. Trusting. Exercising faith. Crying \u201cDaddy!\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I mean about His arithmetic. As I write this, called away from the closing session of the Writers Conference by the pinging-alarm on my cell phone, I learned there was a tornado warning in my town. I realized, then, I had been hearing unusual sirens. Subconsciously I must have thought that some oaf at town hall had flipped a wrong switch, but it was real. A friend a little south of me called and said there were car parts and a TV set strewn about his area; and a new warning (not watch) has been issued.<\/p>\n At such times we pray, \u201cKeep me safe till the storm passes by,\u201d literally and figuratively, right? And, as the challenges of my friends and me will pass \u2013 altogether, or slowly, or barely \u2013 it made we wonder how often do we thank God for the problems that never present themselves in the first place? Tornados that don\u2019t touch down? Accidents that don\u2019t happen? Relationships that don\u2019t rupture? Hurts that don\u2019t hurt? Hurtful gossip that is never spoken? Storms that pass by?<\/p>\n Well, it is next to impossible to thank God for things we don\u2019t see in the first place.<\/p>\n \u2026 except when we praise Him for all things, seen and unseen; joy unspeakable, as we are promised, and full of glory.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n