The Reality Of Life

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1 AV)

We know Job uttered these words while in a state of deep depression.  He had lost his children, his material wealth, and his health.  All within a matter of a few days.  The words about are quite normal for someone who is having the worst day of his life.  While in deep grief, he states the obvious.  Our days are full of trouble and are short.  We understand we are commanded to rejoice always.  We know that Paul instructs we ask in thanksgiving all that we need from God.  The thing is, we cannot live our lives in the belief that our lives can be trouble-free.  Trouble is part of life.  We live in a sinful world and we suffer for the choices of ourselves and others.  We live in a world cursed by Adam’s sin.  This is our existence.  This is our life.  This is our reality.  The thought occurred to me that we don’t like to accept this truth.  Our entire culture looks for ways in which life can be easier or more perfect.  They are forever struggling after nirvana.  This makes for a generation that cannot accept the challenges of life.  They cannot adapt to hardships.  They recoil at trouble.  The quicker we accept that life cannot be perfect,  the easier it is to live in perpetual joy.

My wife and I watch a bit of T.V. before we retire for the night.  Usually, it is YouTube videos of one sort or another.  We enjoy a good Barbershop Quartet ballad, a product review, or a short on self-protection.  Recently, we have been watching comedians.  Not the perverse ones.  We watch the morally upright ones.  One of them is a critique of the Southern culture by the Southern culture.  It is rather funny.  My latest joy comes from watching older comedians elaborate on the humorous life of becoming older.  There was one fella in his mid-seventies who gave example after example of how his wit gets him in trouble all the time.  Especially when those with whom he is dealing cannot comprehend what an older person faces on any given day.  He explained the humor of going through a TSA inspection line at the airport.  The questions they ask and the answers they expect are funny to someone in their mid-seventies.  Another was the checkout clerk at a drug store that wanted proof of age before she would sell him something illegal for minors.  You have to find the humor in trouble or you can go crazy.  I remember my first colonoscopy.  I found it hilarious that they would have a waiting room full of people first thing the morning with people who had been drinking prep all night.  I tried to make a joke with the doctor right before I went under.  He didn’t think it was so funny.

The point is, ‘trouble’ is our middle name.  We can expect to have to say goodbye to people whom we love.  The older we get, we can expect unpleasant medical tests, procedures, treatments, and diagnoses.  Our cars break down.  Our houses need repairs.  Friends move away.  Our pay is cut.  We get cursed at, we get cut off in traffic, and the coupon we had been planning to use is expired.  We can’t help but see anything but bad news whenever the news comes on.   Our children get deathly ill.  Our parents pass away.  We get older and lonelier.  There is no changing this.  Eternity is our great equalizer.  The quicker we can accept this life as full of trouble, the quicker we can seek the hand of the One who can make it easier.   We cannot bury our heads in the sand hoping it all goes away.  It will not.  It is here as long as we breathe air.  What we do have is an ever-present God who loves us and cares for us.  He is with us through it all.  In the end, we are caught up to glory never to suffer again.  We cannot wish away trouble.  We cannot pray it away.  Trouble is what makes us stronger.  Trouble is what teaches us that life is not about us.  Trouble is the master that shapes a submissive will.  Trouble is necessary.  Trouble is good.  Trouble may hurt for the time being, but it will produce faith and holiness in the end.

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