Joy In Crisis | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Joy In Crisis | Previous Challenge Entry
By David Story
05/24/06
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I was going to write this “great” fictional story about a little girl and her mother. They would be trapped in the bathroom of a church sanctuary while a gunman was on a killing spree.

Then I saw on the news where five people had been killed in Louisiana during a Church Service, and all of the sudden my great story didn’t seem so great after all.

Matter of fact, I believe it would have been disrespectful had I posted it.

And yet, as you read this, how many other such tragedies have occurred…are occurring? They are the tragedies that we never hear about, the ones that never make the six-o’clock news.

For somewhere, right now, a patient is being prepped for surgery. Someone is on his or her way to the emergency room. Someone has lost a loved one. Someone is crying out to God.

Sad. Awful. Tragic.

But have you ever noticed when we hear of these stories from people who know the Lord, there’s a common thread that runs through them?

We call it hope, we call it peace, we call it trust.

We can call it joy.

In my story I was going to have the mother leave her little girl to see if she could go help. The mother was going to remind the little girl of the song that says, “I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart,” and the little girl could sing it to herself for comfort once she was alone. I wasn’t sure how I was going to end the story, for that’s when I heard about this latest incident.

Even now, as I write this I feel I have somehow belittled what happened in Louisiana, and believe me, that is not my intention.

I simply want to remind as all, that no matter what, only Jesus can provide the joy that runs down to our deepest core. He will sustain us. He will not give us anything we cannot handle if we would but simply, trust in Him, rely on Him…cling to Him.

My prayers go out to all who are hurting today; in hopes they will find what true joy is.

I think how much you have helped me; I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings. – Psalms 63:7 (NLT)

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