Glimpses of Truth
Trouble!
Do you every get into trouble? Well, I do. I encounter issues which require guidance from others, as well as personal conflicts which trouble the mind, body, and soul.
How we define trouble might define us in some way or another. If we were to think back to our childhood, we could recount many times that we were caught doing something which we knew we were not supposed to do. My toes and fingers could not add up nor even multiply to number the countless times I knew that I was in trouble. Punishment? I’m sure I never received enough. Why? Because there were countless times that I did things and was not caught.
Stealing is and has always been on my bad list. With that said, I remember a time a bunch of years ago that has remained in my mind. The setting was in my 2nd-grade class in Rutherford, Tennessee. One day I noticed some chewing gum on my teacher’s desk. Boy, I wished I had some gum to chew! So, when the teacher was distracted, I slipped up to the desk and just took what was there.
What was there was one-half of a piece of Dentyne Gum. Wow! That’s right, only one-half of one piece! It was big enough to fill one of my cavities, almost. Well, I secretly chewed that ˝ piece of gum--until, that is, the moment I thought that Ms. Peel would notice it gone and notice me chewing her ˝ piece of gum and put 2 and 2 together or 1 and 1 and I would be the one. For days I was fearful and troubled over what I had done. I might as well have stolen a truckload of gum. That’s how heavy the load was. Honestly, that’s how heavy the load should have been! It was such trouble for me that I never, never, never want to feel that way again. Ms. Peel never missed her ˝ piece of Dentyne Gum. But I knew . . . and that was enough.
Have you ever been in trouble? It often makes me want to cry. Cry! Why? Because of guilt? Because of being caught? From scripture I find a man named David. He said, “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.” Ps. 28:1. Isn’t this the example which we all need? Our wrong choices get us into trouble. They really take us to the pit. Life and all its trouble is often described by us as “the pits.”
The apostle named Paul once said that life didn’t have to be the “pits” if built upon the right foundation. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Doesn’t that let us know that we’re in trouble all the way to the pit if we don’t get on the right foundation?
I don’t know what kind of trouble you are in today, but there is always plenty to go around. Standing on those troubles only cause us to sink. Need a Rock to stand on? I’ll scoot over; there’s plenty of room for you on this Rock. We don’t have to be silent there. The God of Creation wants to hear our cries as we cling to the Rock of our salvation, His Mercy Seat.
Remember that man named David? He found that Rock in his trouble and said, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song I will praise Him.” Ps. 28:7. I don’t know what I would do without this “Rock!”
