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Enough troubles?

June 1, 2008  - Dale

Each day has enough troubles of its own, someone once said. But some days seem to have more than enough troubles. Most of us have got used to carrying the usual stresses and troubles. Well, maybe not used to it, but at least we have worked out ways of coping and surviving.

But not all troubles are of the usual kind. It is the new ones that take up more energy. The new pressure or stress or trouble doesn’t come with a best practice solution. So we try various ways to deal with it: trial and error with lots of trials and many errors. Finding the way forward can be very tiring, more so when our emotional or physical reserves are depleted.

Sometimes we have a  sense of the right way forward and stumble our way towards it. Other times we feel quite disorientated and spend a lot of energy going nowhere (or so it seems). And there often seems to be a lot of heat in these struggles – we get angry or frustrated or lose our temper (or let an innocent bystander know how we feel).

So did the wise person who said each day has enough troubles of its own, have any helpful advice about this? Don’t worry about tomorrow was his advice – stick with today's troubles.  Very wise!

One of the troubles with worrying about tomorrow is that  one can get absorbed in the troubles.  Some of us are natural catastrophisers and extrapolators. We can see how the troubles could get worse and worse. Some of us are natural pessimists easily led to despair. In either case the troubles come to dominate our thinking.

But the wise man had a much bigger bit of advice: put your mind on God’s ruling of the world and let him worry about the things you need. Does that change anything?

It certainly clears the mind. The dark red clouds inside our heads are moved to somewhere near the horizon. We have a new clarity to work out how to deal with the pressure. But does it make any difference to the troubles?  Sometimes it does – actually relying and calling on God sometimes brings changes to the circumstances.

Sometimes the difference is in us. We know that there is someone walking with us through the dark valley. There is someone sitting at the table with us while the rest of the world seems against us. We don’t have to be afraid.

Dale

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