Trusting In Life's Harshness

Stop for a minute. Look around you at other people. Some of them are going through the harshest times imaginable. The word harsh can be defined as unpleasant and difficult. That sums up the plight of many people. The harshness has hit them like a battering ram sending them reeling emotionally, spiritually, physically and financially. Not a battering ram that delivers one blow and is done. Harshness is a series of heavy blows one on top of another.

That is the reality for many people right now. They probably do not talk about it. They suffer silently. Like the story I heard today of a man behind on his rent. He walked to a gas station with a gallon jug to get some gas just to get his vehicle started. It did not work. He was so low on fuel one gallon did even get it cranked. He had to repeat the whole scene. He went to a grocery store to buy eggs and cheese. When all was said and done he over drafted his banking account. What he thought would only cost $20 ended up costing $130 in over draft fees he does not have. He is too prideful to ask for help.

I think of a recently divorced lady blindsided. She sits alone in misery with kids scattered all over grown with their own lives now. Harshness hit right between the eyes and she tries to pick of the pieces of her broken heart and shattered world.

I think of those being failed by the justice system with stacked juries, biased judges and crooked lawyers. Disillusioned they walk away feeling failed by the whole legal system. The harshness of a sentence or fine stares them in the face.

Then there are those coping with the harshness of watching a loved one slowly fade away into eternity. Prayers have not brought healing. Tears have fallen until the eyes are puffy and red. The doctors coldly state there is nothing else they can do. So day after day the grieving watch death take a little more ground each day until eventually life is completely choked off. The caregivers are helpless to do anything to stop it.

There is another group. I would call them the overwhelmed. They are not ramrodded with just one thing, but multiple things battering at the same time. Such people cannot seem to catch a break. They are like people trying to tread water in a tumultuous ocean. It takes all the strength they have just to keep their heads above water. It is a sheer act of will not to give up and to bravely stagger through another day.

I just got off the phone with another person dealing with life's harshness. After I hung the phone up I sat back in my chair and sighed. I had no magic fixes. The harshness was real and the desperation just as real.

Sitting back in my chair I did not hear it at first. I got lost in my thoughts. Then the sound of some worship music playing in the background pierced my thoughts with these words written by a worship leader named Dennis Jernigan. "I will trust You in the darkness, I will trust in life's harshness, I will trust you to guard over my heart. I will trust You and keep singing, I will trust You dearly clinging, I will trust You and keep bringing You my heart. In quietness and trust You will be strength, and Father I trust You with my heart."

I don't know what went on in Mr. Jernigan's heart God used to inspire him to write this song. I know God has used it to pull me through some harsh times in life, like the illness and death of my mother back in 1998. I recall how God brought me through the worst year of my life not so long ago and many times I leaned on those profound lyrics as I sang my way through the harshness.

From your vantage point things may look very dark. No light at all. There is light. If you are a child of God, Jesus who is the Light of The World, resides in you. His word is a lamp for your feet and light to guide your path. Trust in the darkness.

In life's harshness choose to trust. Find some biography of a saint who suffered and persevered and found their way through. Choose trust. Listen to the testimony of someone you know whom God brought through the harshness of life.

Choose to keep singing. Choose to keep clinging to Yahweh and His word. Keep bringing Him your heart. Trust Him even when everything in you and around you screams to doubt and fear. One day the Son will breakthrough the dark cloud over your life now. Trust until that day comes whether near or far. Keep trusting God the Father with your heart even in the harshness.