True Witness

You know the story about the person who's having fits going to sleep, don't you? The guy in the apartment overhead is making a lot of noise getting ready for bed--you know, opening and closing a sliding closet door with a swoosh-thud, swoosh-thud; slamming the lid down on the toilet and flushing it, that type of thing--and then when he stomp-stomp-stomps back into the bedroom, he sits down on a groaning bed, takes off a shoe, and drops it on the floor.

The poor guy downstairs waits... and waits... and waits for the other shoe to drop. Nothing. He rolls over on his back and stares angrily at the ceiling. He just knows that the moment he starts to nod off to sleep the other shoe will drop and wake him up. So he waits some more, straining to hear something--anything---in the silence. Finally, when nothing happens, he rolls over into a fitful sleep.

That was me after the stock market took a nosedive in September 2008. Our secure little financial world had taken a major hit, and I'd been nervously waiting for the guy upstairs to drop the other shoe. Trouble was, I'd begun to think he might be a centipede instead of the two-legged kind of nuisance. I mean, the news just seemed to get worse and worse every day. The unemployment lines were growing; paychecks were shrinking; and everywhere you looked businesses, both large and small, were going bankrupt.

I've got to be honest. That night when I knelt beside my bed, my prayers reflected all my anxious thoughts and fears. But God is so gracious, isn't He? He let me babble on and on, knowing that sooner or later I'd settle down and listen to Him when I was ready. And speak He did.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7

In any trial you have a choice either to become anxious and say, "Oh, poor, poor me!" or you can ask yourself "What lesson is there to be learned here?" You know, after having had breast cancer a couple of years ago, I've been there, done that on the pity party routine; and, believe me, it's more trouble than it's worth. So, I asked myself: What's God trying to teach me this time? Turned out, I already knew the answer. I wasn't so much worried about the money we'd already lost; that was a done deal, water under the bridge. No, no. I was more worried about was going to happen to us six months, a year, two years down the road. I mean, come on! Social Security has been on the Endangered Species list for years now, hasn't it? That's why we'd been saving like crazy in our 401(k)s and IRAs. But now Congress was also talking about letting a bureaucrat decide whether I qualify for chemo if my breast cancer comes back? No way, Jose! I wanted control of my life, okay? I certainly didn't want someone else making my decisions for me!

"I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content... I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:11, 13