"Why All the Trouble?" by Jeanette Lockerbie

Since, obviously, a certain measure of trouble comes to each of us, we might think seriously about these words of Socrates (especially if we have ever wished we might trade our troubles):  “If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart.”  God has a purpose in sending trials our way. Oliver Wendell Holmes must have understood this truth when he wrote, “If I had a formula for ridding mankind of trouble, I think I would not reveal it, for in doing so, I would do him a disservice.” That trouble, trials, tribulation, difficulty and sorrow have enriched lives is amply borne out even in the hymns we so frequently sing. The blind Fanny Crosby, some of whose hymns bless most every church service we attend; Horatio Spafford, who, after the horror of the devastating Chicago fire, followed by the loss of four daughters in an Atlantic shipwreck, was somehow enabled to write “It is Well With My Soul.” George Matheson, likewise, threatened by certain blindness and forsaken by a beloved fiancée, gave to us the beautiful “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” Although not hymn writers, we can be hymn singers, as we recognize God’s plan – even when it is spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

Dear Lord,

Give me joy in the night as You reveal the beautiful treasures for me in the darkness.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen