October 1, 2019

Saturday afternoon, I was planting oats when I noticed oil squirting out the side of the tractor. I got exactly half a field planted. That’s not good.

Monday morning, as I was explaining my latest farming woe to Jane, she told me that her husband seemed to have spent more time working on his equipment than using it. That made me feel better.

There is nothing better than living in the country but there are times when tractors break, bulls jump fences, and Armyworms march across fields eating everything in sight. But if you are going to live in the country, that’s the price you pay.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as a life without controversy or challenges. And if there were, it would be a very boring existence.

So the next time something doesn’t go your way, don’t gripe, whine, or complain (which is what I do); instead, roll up your sleeves and address the issue. That’s the only way it is ever going to get resolved.

This is especially true when it comes to living out our faith as Christians. Challenges and trials will always come but how we choose to address them is what really matters.

That’s why James says, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

The great theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr said it this way:

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,

enjoying one moment at a time;

accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;

taking, as Jesus did,

this sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it;

trusting that You will make all things right

if I surrender to Your will;

so that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.

Trials will come and go but God’s lifesaving love for you will always be here. In the end, that’s all that really matters.

I pray your day is filled with joy and laughter.

Tom Robbins