About trouble, joy, peace and hope

Trouble

If there is one truth that all humanity should agree on then it should be: “In this life you will have trouble”!

How often trouble will visit you, what shape it will have, how much of it will be coming your way and how long it will stay with you, the answer to these questions no human being can answer. Trouble often seems to come from nowhere and troubles never seem to subscribe to any concept of fairness and never make any sense. Bystanders sometimes seem to be able to identify a reason why some troubles occur and will often use their unwieldy fingers to point out their findings. Having said this some troubles do seem to have a relationship with a specific cause and they therefore are an effect caused by some action or choice that preceded it.

Humanity struggles with the concept of trouble and tries to adopt more or less healthy ways of dealing with it. One not so healthy way is to duck and ignore trouble and hope that it will not come our way. This approach suggests that we have to occupy ourselves with the pursuit of happiness, wealth, health and youth and have to enjoy life at all costs. To have a good time is to overwhelm ones being with adrenaline, emotions, entertainment and speed. The aim is to not spend time on any matter that could slow our “self-fulfillment drive” down. If we move fast enough, then trouble cannot come to us and should it come, at least we lived a good life before that! This attitude does not seem to be sustainable?

Peter in his 1st letter, which you will find in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, advises us to embrace trouble, endure it and he encourages us to focus towards the future, looking forward to a time where there will be no more trouble coming our way. Peter writes from the view point of a messenger of Jesus Christ. He recognizes that troubles are certain and that the only way of enduring them is with the certainty that God will help us through all of them! If we trust God then God will reward us later for the faith we have shown. Peter does not address the fact that God could make trouble go away, this is not the aim here, Peter focuses the reader on the fact that all in all we will gain a lot by enduring trouble together with God.

Joy and Peace

Peter writes in his letter about a promise that God made: He will give to his children the gift of joy and peace! One gift that contains two life concepts, both difficult to grasp because they are not easily found or obtainable. Peter knows of a state, a way of life, where joy and peace is the base experience of existence. It is a gift of God that puts his child safely and confidently into this world! Even though a follower of Jesus Christ is hit by trouble, this believer’s base experience of life is joy and peace! This is so because this child of God applies faith and accepts the gift as given by his Father in heaven. The gift can be rendered ineffective by fear or doubt. Joy and peace end if help is sought from other sources than God!

Hope

Peter writes of hope. With this hope in his heart he trusts the promises of God and lives a life full of peace and joy. Hope gives him faith to believe that at the End the outcome will be good for everybody that is shielded by Jesus Christ. He knows that Jesus saves him from a lasting negative outcome in his life. His view is that at the End God’s judgement will come! It will bring to pass the outcome or result that is an effect caused by living a specific life. Peter knows that those that rely on Jesus Christ will live with Jesus’ Spirit in their heart, accept God’s gifts through faith, will therefore experience God’s grace and have the best possible outcome coming their way!

Good Peter thank you for writing your letter! I do believe that all books and letters in the Christian Bible are inspired by Jesus Christ.