Faith in challenging times

Charleswood

What do you do when the bottom drops out of your world?

Like my photographer husband and other instructors at RRC Polytech who are suddenly without a job. Or my friend whose mother received a cancer diagnosis. Or the one who had a miscarriage.

We all know people whose lives have been shaken. Maybe it’s you. What do you do? What should we do?

The first thing is that no one should go through these situations alone. We need to share our burdens and show care for those in need. It may take courage to not isolate oneself in shame or withdraw in pain. As friends, even if we don’t know what to say, just being there for someone in need can be so comforting.

Sometimes I think of immigrants and wonder who they turn to in times of need. Some people and families have built community here but others have not yet been able to do so. Those who came as refugees have already had the bottom fall out of their worlds and may still be trying to recover. Yet a large part of the world falling apart for them was losing the community they were woven into.

Having people to turn to in times of trouble is crucial. It’s built into our humanity. We must reach out.

For me, having faith in God, one who is constant, solid, and unchanging, is also crucial. I can’t imagine weathering storms feeling like everything is up to me – that there’s no one watching over my life from beginning to end, who knows me and loves me, and who listens to my cries for help when no one else can.

I think we were never meant to live life apart from the one who created us and the amazing world we live in.

Though the world is amazingly designed, it is also filled with much pain and uncertainty as a “fallen” world, messed with by sin and corruption.

But as one of my favourite hymns, Great is Thy Faithfulness, says, we can have:

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine (God’s) own dear presence to cheer and to guide,

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.”

It’s all because of Jesus. He declared himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That no one can come to God but through him, through his death and resurrection. My husband and I have both put our trust in him. I actually recently released a song called, Trust the Lord (He’s Trustworthy.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t get rattled when the bottom seems to drop out of our world, but we’re carried by the prayers of our friends and family and by God himself.