Reason #987

Here's the thing about the internet, it's just as evil as it is good. It has caused just as many problems as it has solved. I certainly don't hate, but sometimes I wish life could revert back to the paper days. Back to the days when you sent your bills through the mail. Back to the days when you didn't know every little detail of every person's life. Back to the days when news was read in the newspaper or watched on TV in the evenings. Can you imagine a world without the internet? If you were born after the year 2000, you can't.

I flipped through the radio stations as I drove home yesterday, and I came across a song I had never heard before. I quit listening to secular music three years ago. I keep my radio tuned to KLove or Family Life Radio, and it has made a huge difference in my life. The things we listen to impact our thoughts just as much as the things we watch. It may seem like a small issue, but I think if you made the switch you'd notice a difference in your life, too. Anyway, I caught a lyric or two from this song before I flipped to the next station, and I stopped to listen to the song. You'd think by now nothing would surprise me. But this song surprised me. More than anything, this song confused me. And so I wanted to share some of the lyrics with you because I found it interesting that this is the stuff that plays on the radio these days. Prepare yourself.

I get home, I got the munchies
Binge on all my Twinkies
Throw up in the tub
Then I go to sleep
And I drank up all my money
Dazed and kinda lonely

You're gone and I gotta stay
High all the time
To keep you off my mind
 Spend my days locked in a haze
Trying to forget you babe
I fall back down
Gotta stay high all my life
To forget I'm missing you

 

I don't know if this song was written from a personal experience. I certainly hope not. Unfortunately, though, I have a feeling it probably was. And I have feeling that this might very well be a common method for many people who go through tough stuff and want to forget their problems. But this is what the world has to offer us. Nothing of lasting value, nothing beneficial, and nothing helpful, really. Because these things begin to have power over us. They drag us from one dark hole into another, gripping our lives so tightly and controlling us. They become addictions that tear families apart and ruin our lives. They become traps and create victims. They lie and make you believe that if you can simply forget, all of your problems will go away. But the truth is, they won't. Your problems will be there as the buzz wears off. As you hang your head over the toilet, the problem will be waiting on you to return. As you spend your last dime, as you jeopardize your health, as you begin to entangle yourself into something that you will fight off for the rest of your life, your problems will tag along. No, nothing this world gives you will make your problems go away. It will only add to them.

 

Maybe you're thinking I don't understand. Well, you're partially right. I may not know what it feels like to drink my problems away. I may not understand the buzz and the high that comes from needles in the arm. But I certainly understand problems. I certainly understand going through something so painful that you wish it would all go away. I know what it feels like to hope that you'll wake up to a different life. That it was all a bad dream. There have been many times I have wished to have a memory zapper from Men in Black because memories do cause pain. But the truth is, pain is temporary. So are problems. Problems themselves never go away, but individual problems do as time passes. Yet the key to not letting you problems overtake you has nothing to do with the substance used to help you forget them. Rather, it has everything to do with who helps you get through them.

 

In John 16:33 Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." It's Jesus. He's the key. He's the one we turn to in our time of trouble. He is the solution, our problem solver. And when we face problems, He gives us the strength to keep moving forward. The pain is not eliminated, rather, He gives us the ability to endure it. Of course, being the fragile humans we are, pain is not something we want to endure. But through the pain, we are refined. We learn how to persevere and we are rewarded for it. Because when we lean on Jesus, when we lay our hurts and our troubles at His feet, He's helps us manage through them. It certainly won't be a cake walk. It won't be quick and painless, either. But it will be fruitful. It will be beneficial. It will be worthwhile, and it will work. Because in our weakness, His strength is made perfect. And so we don't have to do it on our own. We do have to figure out a way to get past the problems and through the pain. We simply have to trust in Jesus. To take heart! To remember that He is our helper. He may not numb the pain, but He'll use it to draw us closer to Him. And the truth is, even if it hurts a little, even if it means we have to be uncomfortable, walking through the valley with Jesus is the sweetest trek we could make. Eventually, we'll make it to the mountain top and we'll be glad we got there with His help.

 

#987 - Because Jesus is the solution to our problems.

 

"It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him." - Deuteronomy 13:4