January 15, 2019
Good Morning Fellow Travelers,
Read: II Samuel 12:16-23
“When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” Luke 11:2
An old man was once asked, “How is it that as hard as your life appears to be, with besetting illness and financial difficulties, you still maintain a cheerful disposition?” He smiled and answered, “I have learned to cooperate with the inevitable.” We can learn something from him.
There are many things in our life that we cannot change. We cannot change where we were born, nor the family we were born into, nor the color of our skin. We do not choose which disease we get, nor even the time of our death. There is much in life that is inevitable. We love our families, our wives and children, our grandchildren. But brace yourself for the inevitable. The time will come when God will allow the first one to be taken by death. The time will come in your family when one will be stricken by cancer or some other terminal disease. God forbid that this would happen, but in today’s world it is likely that someone near and dear to you will lose faith and come to spiritual shipwreck.
To cooperate with the inevitable is to accept life’s difficulties and move on. There is a difference between coping and cooperating. To just cope with what life hands us often ends up in us becoming a slave to feelings rather than controlling them.
David struggled with his feelings for a while but once the baby died, he got up and moved on. This is often very difficult but we need to learn it. Our children need to learn it also. We all need to learn to cooperate with the inevitable.
Job’s response to his great losses is inspiring to us. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
– James Baer