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“You know you're in trouble”
In my ever-relentless effort to spare you, my dear readers, from the potholes in life, your beloved scribe once again offers some timely counsel; (1) You know you're in trouble when your birthday cake collapses under the weight of the candles. (2) You know you're in trouble when the bird singing outside your window is a buzzard. (3) You are in trouble when you call your answering service and they tell you it's none of your business. (4) You're in trouble when you have to borrow from you VISA to pay on your Mastercharge. (5) It's big trouble when nothing you own is actually paid for.
Truth is, life is a blend of beauty, blah, bluster, blessing, and bane. Trouble comes with life. That's just the way it is. The Bible reminds us that the sun rises and the rain falls on both the just and the unjust. Evelyn Underhill, great English Christian mystic, said, “No Christian escapes a taste of the wilderness on the way to the promised land.” I'll put it more broadly--no person travels the path through life to his or her full potential without the hazards of the road; bugs on the windshield, potholes, rockslides, detours, overheated radiators and punctured tires. How do you know when you are in trouble?
I had the privilege in my early ministry of having, as a mentor, the late Harry Denman. I traveled and worked with him. I spent lots of time at his knee, learning from him. When Mr. Denman died, Billy Graham described him as the greatest lay evangelist since the Apostle Paul. Harry was fond of saying that in every heart there is both a cross and a throne. He said, “Take a look and see who is on the cross. If Jesus is on the cross, beware of whoever is on the throne.”
This is a thought that begs reflection. It is about theses and antitheses. If Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is being crucified in a person's heart, that person will be in trouble because Conflict and Violence will be ruling his or her heart. If a Beastly Predator is on the throne, look for the Good Shepherd on the cross. If Jesus the Healer, Nurturer, Teacher is on the cross, then the Champion of Indifference and Ruin is on the throne. You can tell if you are in trouble by the appointments to the primary places in your heart.
Then, it is a good idea to get right with God. God is easy enough to find when you really begin to search. A favorite vignette from the old TV show All in the Family shows son-in-law, Meathead, pontificating about evolution. Archie Bunker interrupts, “Youse may have come from monkeys and baboons but I'm made in the image of God.”
Meathead mutters, “Do you mean to say God looks like you?” Archie replies modestly, “I ain't sayin' you couldn't tell us apart.”
Then Meathead begins to retell the Genesis story with disdain…how God took a rib from Adam and made a woman. God sounds like Mandrake the magician. You can't tell them apart. But then the saintly dingbat, Edith, chirps in, “Oh, you can tell them apart. God is better known!”
If you can detect early that you're in trouble, and if you can identify the presence of the better-known God somewhere nearby, chances are you will get along just fine. That's the truth.
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