When will things get better?

How many times have I asked this question or heard others ask it?  Can't count them all.  We tend to think that we are living in the most interesting of times, that our problems are unique.  Not so. Are our problems greater than those of pre-war America, are our decisions more daunting than those which had to be made about what to do in Europe?  How about the 1500's in England when no one could keep up with whether their country was Catholic or Protestant this week, and supporting either would not just bring ridicule, but could cost you your head?  At any time in history the record is laced with turmoil, threats from the powerful, fear, disease, all of the same things that plague this planet now.  Want to talk about deforestation?  I grew up in a place in this country that was "clear cut" by a Chicago timber company around the beginning of the 20th Century, where not much of anything was left standing.  Truly, nothing is new under the sun.

Even my own present situation is not unique.  There are so many people in the same situation I am in right now.  Many more will experience it.  The key is to not allow fear to win the day, to not allow myself to make decisions I will soon and definitely regret.  I have been there before too, because I chose out of panic or sentiment, not relying on what the Holy Spirit was insisting I hear, but relying on my own judgement as a broken man.

There has been cause to reach out to God time and time again.  As the psalmist wrote:
       
            Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, 
                  from the clutches of the oppressor.
            In you, O lord, I have taken refuge.
            You have showed me great troubles and adversities, 
                 but you will restore my life and bring me        
                 up again from the deep places of the earth.
            I shall always wait in patience and shall praise you more and more.

Comforting words, indeed.  But these words, written centuries ago, are also great reminders that there are always things to overcome.  God doesn't fix, he gives me the ability to do the job.  The trick is that I have to listen, trust and surrender all that I hold onto with my fearful self.  I must take refuge, and I will be brought up.  Trusting in the power of God never fails, as long as I understand what I am trusting in.