Facing Hard News
Think back to the last time you had some tough news and consider how it affected you. How did you take it? We can adopt various coping strategies consciously or unconsciously – glib denial, rejection with anger or accepting it with faith. People talk about ‘taking it on the chin’, but does that mean with or without trusting God? Can you think of someone you know who has accepted bad news well? How about being told that you were like a mighty tree that blessed many people but that you were going to be cut down to a mere stump, bound with iron and bronze? Not a pleasant thing to be told but this is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon 605-562 BC. None of us likes being ‘cut down to size’ let alone the idea of our recovery being prevented for seven years but it was the precursor to great things for the man who is famed for the ‘hanging gardens of Babylon’. You can read about this in Daniel 4. Perhaps you are facing hard news now – could this be a ‘tree stump moment’?
- ‘Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine’ – Jack Ma