I once saw in a paper some verses the first lines of which were something
like the following:
“Trouble has a way of coming
Big end first;
And when seen at its appearing,
Looks its very worst.”
Many people are always seeing trouble. They are “troubled on every side.”
When they talk, it is generally to tell of their trouble. There are others
who, though they have troubles, seem able to put them in the background,
and say but little about them. They talk of victory, of the Lord’s help,
and of the joys of salvation. We all have our troubles; for man is “of few
days, and full of trouble,” but the greatest troubles any of us have, I
think, are the ones that never come. How truly the poet has spoken in the
above-quoted lines! Just as he says, trouble comes big end first and fills
us with forebodings.
How easy it is to worry over the troubles that loom up in the future. “Oh,
how shall we meet them!” we exclaim. “Oh, I do not see what I shall do!”
and we fear and tremble before them. Nearly all the joy is excluded from
some people’s lives by the shadow of coming troubles; but when those
troubles come upon us, we someway, somehow, pass through them. Many of
them, and sometimes very threatening ones, disappear entirely before we
reach them; and the others, when they do come, are usually not nearly so
bad as we had thought they were going to be. We always find a way through
them. Many times we are surprized at the ease with which we overcome them.
One brother who had been troubled all his life was finally enabled to see
that the Lord always made a way through for him, and in speaking of it he
said, “Things nearly always turn out better than I think they are going
to.”
A young brother and I once had an experience that well illustrates how
trouble works. We were going to meeting one night. There was such a heavy
fog, that we could see only a few feet ahead of us. Suddenly there loomed
before us what appeared to be a great giant. He came striding toward us
through the fog with legs twenty feet long and body towering up out of
sight. It was an awe-inspiring spectacle and at first sight startled us.
There it was, coming right toward us in a most threatening manner. If we
had been frightened and had run away, we might have had a great story to
tell; but we continued walking on toward it, when suddenly we came face to
face with one of our neighbors. He was only an ordinary-sized man, and
there was nothing terrible about him; but he was carrying a lantern, which
swung partly behind him, and as he walked threw that gigantic shadow
forward into the fog. The giant that we saw was not the real man; it was
only his shadow.
That is just the way trouble comes. The thing we see is not really the
approaching trouble in its true size and shape; it is only the shadow of
it that we see. Our imagination pictures it as something terrible, and we
worry and live in its shadow for days and weeks, only to find at last that
we have been scared by a shadow and that the real trouble is only a
fraction of what we supposed it would be.
When Alexander the Great was a youth, his father had a war-horse that no
one could ride. The youthful prince made up his mind to conquer the
animal. When he tried it, he discovered that the horse was afraid of its
shadow; so he turned its head toward the sun and soon had it conquered.
Let us learn a lesson from this, and when we become afraid of the shadows
of trouble, let us turn our faces toward the Sun of Righteousness, thus
leaving the shadows behind us. The Scripture says: “The Lord also will be
a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that
know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not
forsaken them that seek thee” (Psa. 9: 9, 10).
David said: “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not
fear. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavillion: in the
secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me”
(Psa. 27: 3, 5, 6).
O troubled soul, instead of looking at your troubles, look to Jesus. The
more you look at your troubles, the worse they will appear, the more you
will be troubled, and the less you will see of God and his help. Do you
not know that God loves you? do you not know that he sees the trouble? do
you not know that he knows the best way to meet it, and just exactly how
much grace you will need? Instead of worrying, try trusting; you will find
it works much better. Cultivate the habit of casting your care upon Jesus.
Face your troubles boldly. Assert in your soul: “The Lord will make a way.
The Lord will help me through.” Continue repeating it until it becomes
real to you, and you will be surprized how simple trust will take you
through to victory.