Dear Neighbor,
Proverbs 25:20 (NASB) says,
Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda,
My heart is very troubled and I am at a lost to know what to do. My hope, however, is not in this world but in the world yet to come. In this world my heart is troubled. I am told by others that the Christian should always be rejoicing. However, I find it difficult to rejoice because my heart is troubled. Have you ever had a child, a little baby girl, held her in your arms and loved her? Did you watch her grow before your eyes? Did you spend your days working and your evenings attending her activities? To rejoice in the Lord seems a selfish thing to me because my child is not following the Lord. “He (God) has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31, NASB) I confess that I have a difficult time rejoicing when I know that my baby girl is not following the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not rejoicing but I am lamenting. I am not happy but I am sad. I can be distracted for a time but my mind comes back to the present. In a Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis wrote: “Up till this I always had too little time. Now there is nothing but time. Almost pure time, empty successiveness.” My days off from work are filled with time, nothing but time, pure time, empty successiveness. However, I am not distracted at work but reminded. When will it all end? When will things get better? I desire the Lord’s coming, that all things be made right, but I worry about the Lord’s coming, least my baby girl be damned. Oh my heart is troubled! Oh my heart laments! Oh I am full of grief and anguish! Why does it seem like Satan, the world, and the flesh are winning? It is easy to say they are defeated when it is not your baby girl that they have stolen away. Come Lord Jesus and save my child, my baby girl, my troubled heart!Is he who sings songs to a troubled heart.
Michael Peek, BSN, RN, MTS
