When trouble comes

 

Daniel 2:1-16

How do you respond to your pressing situations? Some of us seem more prepared to handle our hardships with greater ease or levelheadedness. We're able to get a grip on our emotions. Others of us aren't so lucky. Is that something hardwired into our psyche or do we learn our responses? I suppose that's a nature vs. nurture conversation. I'd like to think we can learn how to better respond to life's afflictions. That even if it is more difficult for some of us, we have a choice to learn or retrain our minds to respond in more helpful ways. Even God-honoring ways. In Daniel 2, everyone was in trouble. The king and all his wise men. King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams tormented him. He lost sleep and agonized over his dreams. He could not determine what they meant. That should be a personal issue. But angry tyrants do not have personal problems. They have problems they project on other people. What was Nebuchadnezzar's response to his troubling visions? He gave his magicians, enchanters and sorcerers half a chance to figure things out for him. He set up an impossible set of circumstances for them. After that, he decreed their death. Now, they are in certain trouble. Daniel wasn't among the people brought in before the king to hear his trouble. But he was now among those whose life was now in danger. How did Daniel respond? The text says with "prudence and discretion" (Daniel 2:14). Or with counsel and wisdom. That led him to have a personal meeting with the king, who then gave him time to address the king's dreams. We don't get to choose whether we face troubling times. They come to us all. With God's help, we can learn how to take on those moments and seasons with Daniel's kind of wisdom and assurance. We can do so with faith and hope, patience and power. And we don't have to let what we're going through add to the misery of what others are enduring. Lord, help us. Stay blessed...john