The Difficult Times of our Lives

Hello, everyone...

While driving my partner to work this morning, I was so struck by the beauty of the sun on the water. We take the road by the beach each morning. Some mornings it's foggy. Some, raining. But, today it was simply beautiful; one of God's gorgeous paintings on the canvas of His creation.

We were talking about those days when you just feel yucky. You know we all have them. For me, they are days when I want to pull the covers over my head and sleep through the day with hopes tomorrow will be better. I have yet to meet someone who's sun-shiny all the time. And the few who seem that way are, generally IMHO, faking it. It takes guts to be real. It takes guts to acknowledge a yucky day in the face of optimistic people.

While we were talking, that verse you hear over and over in times like this stuck in my head. It's the last half of Psalm 30:5 and says (NIV), "..weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." We all quote that verse. And, always we quote just the back half of it. Funny how we pull stuff out of context in the Bible to meet our needs.

But, in this case I think it is a good thing. Does the writer, most likely David, really mean a literal night and a literal morning? I don't think so. What I do think is that he talks to us about the seasons of our lives. There was an old song that Frank Sinatra sang about the seasons of our lives. I believe it starts off..."When I was 17, it was a very good year...". And, so do we have seasons. In Ecclesiastes 3, the speaker talks of the seasons of life. Take a moment to read it today. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says (NIV), "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance".

All of this reminds us that no matter the season, there is another right behind it. If you are depressed today, there is joy on the way so hold on to His hand and wait on Him. If you are sorrowful today, there is a time of dancing on the way, so give your sorrow to the Lord and He will teach you to dance. But, conversely, you can know that if you are jumping for joy today, you will have seasons of difficulty. So, you must prepare your heart in the Lord so you can weather those storms of life.

I would encourage you today to take your heart to the Lord and let Him show you how to live in victory over those seasons of darkness that the Enemy would try to use to destroy our walk with God. Remember, joy always comes in the morning. And the Enemy has already been defeated. Learn to dance in the Lord!

May God richly bless you today.