At the conclusion of this last political election ending with my beloved country being more
divided than ever a friend wrote me a letter sharing her fears and concerns for the future. She
ended it with this sentence: “We live in troubling times.” I couldn’t help but agree with her, but
the more I thought about it the more I realized that these current times aren’t the only troubling
times that mankind has lived through.
Ancient times were troubling times when crops could fail and half of all children died before
the age of five. The first Christians lived in troubling times where they were persecuted,
tortured, and even killed for their beliefs. The fall of the Roman empire and the coming of the
dark ages were troubling times. The Bubonic plague killed half of Europe and the rest struggled
with starvation and petty wars. The hundred years war, the crusades, the American and French
revolutions, the Napoleonic and American Civil wars were all troubling times where hundreds
of thousands died. In World War I and World War II those thousands became millions. With
the end of them the Cold war with its threat of nuclear destruction made for more troubling
times. Then came the troubling times of terrorism and the fear they bring. In addition to these
were the troubling times that included the struggles of slavery, segregation, prejudice, poverty,
greed, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the struggle for equal rights, the loss of jobs
and security, population explosions, natural disasters, the threat of starvation, the risk of
epidemics, and even the fate of our planet being at risk.
It is clear then that we do live in troubling times and that we always have lived in troubling
times. The question is how are we going to LIVE in them. Are we going to feed them with our
fear or lessen them with our love? Are we going to grow apart in hatred or come together in
kindness? Are we going to continue to go from war to war or are we finally going to bring
lasting peace to this planet? Are we going to grab for ourselves or are we going to give to
others? Are we going to be selfish or are we going to save the world? The choice is ours. I
think we all know, however, which choice our Heavenly Father wants us to make. May we all
then make our troubling times less troubled by living our lives in love, joy, goodness, kindness,
and oneness with God.
Selah... think on this,
Connie
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