October 2004

John 16:29-33

Which one of us has not had a moment of dismay, if not panic, when we realized we were in real trouble? One of my first memories of thinking, "Oh no, I am in trouble," comes from the second or third grade. On this particular day, the teacher announced she was leaving the classroom for a few moments. And in a very stern, frightening voice she said, "I don't want anybody to talk, do you understand that? Nobody will talk!"

So we all sat there quietly, and when I thought she was out of earshot, I talked. Nobody else in the class did, just me. Moments later when she returned to the classroom she asked, "Who talked?" Nobody said a word. "Did anybody talk?" she repeated. Silence. I then became aware that the eyes of the other students were beginning to focus on me. I knew I was in trouble.

The teacher alertly followed the eyes and said, "Arturo,"-- as I was known at that time -- "did you talk?" I said yes. She took a ruler, marched toward my desk and said, "Put out your hands." I obeyed, and she gave me three stinging whacks on the back of my hands. I never talked in her class again.

We all have our own stories. We could go on for hours exchanging stories of times when we were in trouble. Some stories would be tragic, some would be sad, some would be poignant, and some stories would be very funny. Whatever, we all know about trouble. We have learned that some measure of trouble is always with us. The older we get, the more complex life becomes, and the more complex the troubles are.

We may not be in trouble with teachers any more, but there are other authority figures we encounter--and, even worse, troublesome, frustrating, disappointing and painful situations. It is part of the fabric of our lives.

Do you remember that old song about trouble?

Up in the morning,
Out on the job,
Work like the devil for my pay.
But that lucky old sun
Got nothing to do
But roam around Heaven all day.

Trouble is as normal and natural to life as breathing in and breathing out. There's no way we can ever avoid it. When we go to the scriptures we find trouble all through it. It seems every character in the Bible is dealing with some kind of trouble. So trouble is a given. It is a part of life, whether we like it or not, no matter how hard we try to avoid it. Sometimes people think, "Perhaps if I give my life to Jesus Christ as I've heard some people do, I will have no more problems. I will just trust in Jesus."

It's not that simple! Often after you have committed your life to Jesus, your troubles are even greater. If we search in the Bible for a place where it says that life can be easy, we won't find
it. The Bible never promises us no trouble and easy living.

But Jesus makes a remarkable statement, and if we take it seriously we will understand that although trouble is a normal part of life, we can do something extraordinary with it. These are His words: "In this world, you will have tribulation." (One translation says, "You will be persecuted.") "But be of good cheer. Have courage. I have overcome the world." This, to me, says that we can be bigger than any trouble.

Jesus, in His presence, in His being, has found a way, through God's blessing and empowerment, to overcome the troubles of the world. And we will do well, we will be bigger than our troubles, if we invite Jesus to be our partner, invite Jesus to participate with us in our journey of troubled times, knowing all the while that there will come that day when, with Jesus, we too will overcome the world. There is every reason for hope.

The other day I had a conversation with a member of this church about how she involved Jesus as her partner when facing difficulties. She said, "When I'm in an anxious situation, I send Jesus on ahead of me. I visualize Him in the room ahead of me. Arthur, it works! It works!" And it does work when you send Jesus on ahead of you into any troublesome situation.

One of the mistakes we make about trouble is seeing it as abnormal, like a foreign agent from afar unexpectedly entering and upsetting our lives. As a result, we are often completely unprepared, don?t know what to do, and we might even feel we shouldn?t have to. So even if today you are sailing along on a calm sea, it is a good idea to prepare ahead and think about how to deal with trouble when it, inevitably, will arrive.

For the next few minutes, I am going to talk about two responses to trouble I hope will be helpful. The first response is: develop perspective. It is very wise to develop a philosophy about trouble, a philosophy about where trouble fits into your life, so that you can be more in charge of your life when trouble strikes.

As a graduate student, I first heard this definition of life and, for me, it represents reality. I immediately adopted it. It is very simple and basic: "Life is a series of problem-solving situations" meaning it is normal to encounter obstacles and troubles. Our challenge is to develop problem-solving skills.

In the Jewish tradition is a wondrous mystical dimension called Kabbalah, where you can find some wonderfully wise insights about our lives. Kabbalah says, "Obstacles are our opportunities to connect with the light." The troubles we have are opportunities to learn about ourselves, to get enlightenment, to grow, to stretch, to get a better perspective. Kabbalah says that the more obstacles we have, the more opportunities we have to connect with the light.

Don't we all want the light? Don't we desire to be in the brilliant presence of God? Don't we want the presence of Jesus, the light of the world? Obstacles are our way to the light. How else are we going to learn, except through obstacles?

You might know the name Dr. Bernie Siegel. He has visited us here at Marble Collegiate Church several times as a speaker, and once he even preached a sermon. He is an author and physician from Connecticut and has the most ingenious, innovative way of understanding and communicating about human problems. One of his great interests is the spiritual and psychological bases of illness and healing. The following excerpt is from his book called How to Live Between Office Visits.

Once when I was speaking in Toronto I met a wonderful woman named Fay Finkelstein. She had always been a fighter, fighting odds, fighting statistics. When she developed cancer of the liver, she fought that too. She wrote a letter to a lady in Sweden who had liver cancer. I want to quote from that letter, because it says so much about loving and living and being well.

Hi. I'm writing at the request of Dr. Bernie Siegel.... I'm also writing to you because I want to. I understand that you have liver cancer. I was told over a year ago that I would probably die in six weeks. I didn?t die. I don?t plan to die for a long time. The advice I can offer you is what worked for me.

ONE, don't believe anyone who tells you when you?re going to die.

TWO, nobody knows when another person will die.

THREE, liver cancer does not mean death, necessarily.

FOUR, if you want to live, fight for it.

FIVE, get away from anyone who does not support whatever action you decide to take for yourself, and that even includes family.

SIX, find something, anything that you truly love to do and throw yourself completely into this activity. It will become a form of meditation for you. It will take your mind off your illness and allow your body to heal itself.

SEVEN, if the doctor offers you a treatment and you believe in it, do it.

EIGHT, believe in yourself.

NINE, death is not failure. Everyone dies. Just give life your best shot. I have been on different forms of chemotherapy for over two years. The drugs I believed in worked, the drugs I didn?t like not only didn't work but the tumors grew.

Can you see why Dr. Siegel wanted to introduce his readers to this remarkable woman? What a spirit! She was given an obstacle that would paralyze many of us, and yet she used it to connect with the light. She is stronger, and wiser, brighter and better because of them. The light is in her, and she is happily telling others about it.

So the first helpful response to trouble has to do with having a philosophy of trouble, that life is a series of problem-solving situations. Encountering problems isn't a defeat, it is an invitation to overcome, to become bigger than your problems, and it is a way to come into connection with the light.

The second helpful response to trouble is prayer. Prayer is a way of seeing things from the highest point of view. When we pray we are inviting God into our life process. We are asking God to be a participant with us in our lives. We are asking God to open our minds, our spirits, every avenue of activity -- open the doors, open the windows, give us a path. When we pray wisely, we are trusting God, trusting the greater power, the higher mind, to give us the wisdom of the universe and direct us. But first we have to trust, and trust, and trust.

Recently, somebody sent me an email with a wonderful parable about a man living in a cabin in the woods who, one night, woke up to see a bright light shining in the cabin. He understood that it was God. God said to him, "There is something I want you to do."

The man inquired what it was, and God responded, "There is a big boulder in front of your cabin. I want you to go out there every day and push, and push, and push against that boulder."

The man took God's instructions seriously. Day after day for many, many weeks he pushed against that boulder. But he couldn't budge it an inch. After awhile an idea came into his head, which he understood to be the voice of the devil. "Look, you don't have to bother with this. You have done your best. You won't succeed at this. Accept that you have failed. It is useless. Then just take it easy and do the least amount of work you can."

Before the man would take that advice, however, he decided to pray. He prayed and prayed and prayed. "God, I have done what You asked me. I have been very faithful. Every day for hours I have been pushing against that rock, but I have not budged it an inch. I have failed."

Then God, with great compassion, answered. "Son, you are not a failure. I asked you to push against that rock, and you were obedient. I never asked you to move it. I asked you to push against it.

"Because you have pushed faithfully and diligently against that rock every day, notice how strong your arms have become. Your back is brown and sinewy, your legs are massive; you are in such better shape now than you were. You have learned a lot because you have been faithful and obedient."

Then God said to the man, "You have trusted me. Now I will move the rock." That is the way God does things.

So, when life is getting you down, PUSH. When you're having trouble on your job and things are not working out well, PUSH. When the bills are high and the money is low, PUSH. When people aren't responding to you in ways you hope and want, PUSH. When people don't understand you, PUSH.

And what does PUSH mean? Pray Until Something Happens.

The Quakers have a wonderful saying: have faith, and the way will open. Which means, pray until something happens.

So then, trouble is everywhere. It will never go away. Trouble is a part of the human scene. The world was made for us to learn how to deal with trouble and to grow through it. But God, through Jesus Christ, has given us the power to overcome the world of troubles, to be bigger than any trouble.

So may I suggest that you pray, and pray, and pray, inviting Jesus into your life to partner with you, so that the troubles of the world will be manageable and the catalysts for growth, bringing you into the light. Let us pray:

For the blessing of the moment, O Lord, for the challenges and obstacles we have, we thank you. Help us to have enough faith, enough obedience to You, to keep on keeping on -- to keep the faith and to keep praying. We ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN