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“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Man, if ever there was a year where this verse seems fitting it’s 2020. It seems like this year has been nothing but trouble. And not just personal trouble, but trouble in our families, our communities, our country, and our world. Globally, we have been holding the weight of trouble for 9 months now, and it is taking a toll on all of us.
The troubles my family has faced this year have been exhausting. We’ve spent more time in hospitals the last 3 months then we have the past 3 decades. As we’ve learned what life looks like living with a chronic illness there have been many conversations about why this happened to my family, my son.
I remember sitting with my son and his oncologist talking about this rare blood cancer that has invaded his body. I remember her saying that one cell in his bone marrow mutated then reproduced and now... now we’re having conversations about life expectancy and long term treatment. All because one cell mutated.
It makes you think about how fragile this life really is.
As we’ve wrestled with our new normal I keep coming back to one of my favorite quotes from Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said, “I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage... that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they’ve shed; that will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”
This is my hope. That in the end, when we stand with Jesus face to face, that the troubles of this world will all fade away. And while we wait for that hope, we don’t wait without comfort in this world. Because here, in the middle of trouble, Jesus is with us. He is with us in the trouble. He steps into our confusion and fear and brings peace. Peace enough to hold us through whatever trouble this world holds for us.
