THE DECEIT OF TROUBLESOME TIMES

An important factor breeds among us.  If unaware of such tendencies, we will apply serious misjudgment.  You need to know that mankind has been hacked.  The thief intends to steal our confidence, our stability, and our joy.  This is a very real threat to every individual.

This mockery passes our stations under the guise of troubling times.  Full of arrows and other very mean artillery, anyone is vulnerable to experience rough times; while feeling we never deserved them.  Deserve them, we don't.  Yet, we must not waste them.

The deceit of troublesome times is that they pose as useless.  It is assumed their goals are simply to interfere with our minds and hearts.  But, not true.  Troublesome times are at the very core of strengthening we soldiers of the Cross for we will most definitely encounter battles.  If not in condition, we will tuck our tails between our legs and run screaming Foul the entire time.

But trouble isn't foul.  Trouble is basic training just as is the rudimentary principles of Basic Training in the Armed Forces.  Trouble is our conditioner for waging war where we eventually save people's lives by wading into fiercely intimidating settings.  It is from struggle that we decide one of two ways: quit or fight for life.  Too many quit; quit on goals, quit on relationships, quit on being happy.

I would urge you to learn that you are advantaged when matters don't go as you had hoped.  Disappointment is a very personal trainer so that you can assist the next generation who runs into disappointment and feels they'll not survive.  Show them your Survival Card.  

The grand deceit of troublesome times is that such appears to be a waste of a good day. Yet, it is the opposite.  It is the trainer of endurance so that we can, in turn, help others who are limping along.  We train these to lift their heads and step up their pace.  We learn to cheer one another on with, You can make it! because we once were tempted to mope in their shoes.  But instead, we learned a secret. We learned a reverse approach where we force trouble (instead of it using us) to make us into a much stronger people.