Trusting God in the Hard Times

August 30th, 2006

Christian author Max Lucado tells a story about a lady who had a pet parakeet named Chippie. Chippie didn’t know it, but he was in for a bad day.

One day his owner was vacuuming out his cage, as she always did. Unfortunately, the phone rang, and the woman turned to answer the phone, and before she realized what she’d done, she heart the sound of poor little Chippie getting sucked up into the vacuum cleaner.

Once she realized her error, she turned off the vacuum, opened the bag, and found little Chippie, still alive, but coughing and covered in dust. She did the only thing she could think of. She took Chippie to the sink, turned on the faucet, and held him underneath it to wash him off.

This time, she had only turned on the cold water, which left the poor bird shivering and wet. So, in an effort to dry him off and warm him up, his owner turned on the blow dryer, and blasted the little bird with it.

A newspaper columnist had heard about this story about a bird being sucked up by a vacuum, held under the faucet, and blasted by a blow dryer and living through it. A couple of weeks later, the reporter called back to check up on the bird. Chippie’s owner replied that he was alive and in good health, but that he didn’t sing anymore – he just sat there and stared.

Sometimes as we go about our lives, I believe that life’s problems and hardships have a tendency of wearing us out, and sucking the life right out of us. It’s tough to sing when our lives are filled with hard times. When a close friend dies, or we lose a job, or things don’t happen the way we expected, we often feel mistreated, like a mean trick has been played on us.

However, Jesus gives us a truth about adversity and hardships in John 16:33. As he was preparing to leave this earth, he told his disciples, “In this world you will have troubles, but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In other words, Jesus tells his followers that life will bring us troubles. That’s inevitable, and it happens to all of us. We will all face difficult circumstances in our lives – without a doubt. But, that’s not the only promise he gives us. He also gives us a reason to hope. Christ has overcome the world!

While our lives may seem like they’re full of heartaches and pain, we serve a God who has overcome the world, and therefore has control over everything that happens. We may never have all the answers to why bad things happen, but we serve the God who holds all of the answers, in the palm of his hands.

Entry Filed under: Will's Blog