The Times That Try Us

Inspired by Thomas Paine’s writing in his pamphlet The American Crisis, circa 1776, I offer this for our present days: Like those who have gone before us we are sometimes faced with acts against humanity that cause us pain and confusion. This is in addition to natural disasters and accidents that impact us in a similar way. These man-made acts and others cause us to feel insecure and unable to defend and protect ourselves. However, we soon learn that the more difficult life can seem to us, the more wonderful we feel as a people when we survive and conquer these tests of life. We relearn just how dear our country and its people are to us.

Paine’s words, “These are the times that try men’s souls”, certainly fit our time with the recent Boston Marathon bombing, the Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion, the killing of innocent school children in Sandy Hook, the theater murders in Colorado, the tornadoes in April 2011, to name a few. We are all reminded of just how important our faith in God is to us. Our politicians use words recognizing our Creator God that are at other times politically incorrect to speak. God gets us through these times in ways He has been using since He created us. John 16:33 tells us: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

As sad as we feel for our fellow Americans who are killed or maimed in an act of violence against them and us or impacted by something accidental or natural, we are called to come together and move ahead with a new outlook on our wonderful gift of humanness and our need to love one another. It is amazing how these kinds of tragedies tend to bring out the best in us and hopefully sustain us in our future lives together.

In Psalm 46:1-3 we are reminded: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah.” 

Habakkuk 3:17-19 addresses the possible loss of all the sustenance of life and says in part: “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.”

As the present living children of God’s Creation, we are only a small part of humanity that has dwelled on the Earth since God began creating His children. It is inevitable that we will soon join those who have gone before us. As a God loving people, we believe in eternal life in and with Him. When we view our lives in this eternal way, we realize that no murderer, no disaster, no accident can separate us from our eternal relationship with our Creator God.

As God’s children presently living in this natural world it is, however, our duty and our calling to love one another and support one another in times of trial. We are the instruments of much of God’s Love and Grace. He uses us in so many ways to help Him reach out to His children. In Luke 12:48 we see: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

Experience has shown us that we children of God go through a transformation when trouble knocks on the doors of our friends and neighbors and those we don’t even know. Sometimes we fall back to less caring ways, when there is no imminent danger.  Oh, that we could live daily in such a sensitive way. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring out the best in us and remind us of our duty through and to the Lord.