Troubled Hearts Take Heart

This past week I've talked to so many of my beloved friends who feel like life is swallowing them whole. If you've read my last few entries you'll know I'm not accustomed to that notion myself this semester... But I've found the perfect verse to cling to and after so many of my dear one's expressing such troubled hearts lately I can't help but spread the perfection around a little. 

"I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."  

John 16:33

Like those multi-colored watercolors God uses to fill the sky with His promises, this verse is a rock-solid reminder of the covenant of my Abba Father. 'Life is hard, then you die.'  That brash worldly sentiment displayed on many a bumper sticker doesn't account for the joys Jesus brings us in this life, but it isn't totally false.  John 16:33 promises that as Christians we will suffer.  Following Christ doesn't ensure a sense of security or save us from the pains the rest of the world suffers from.  In fact, instead of guarding against them, following Christ guarantees struggles.  But when you have Jesus to lean on that brash saying needs to be altered just a bit.  Life is hard, so Jesus lived it.  He knows just what we're feeling as we feel it. Every changing emotion, every lumpy throat or welling scream also flashed through Jesus' body.  His heart beat the same as mine does, so it fell to the pit of His stomach just like mine does too. He knows, fully and completely.  

This world is full of difficult days, exhaustive work, tearful nights.  Jesus guaranteed the overwhelming feelings of loneliness and stress that wage war on us.  He isn't surprised by them and when they sneak up on us we can take solace in the thought that He planned for them ahead of time. And an even more brilliant and comforting concept is the truth that He overcame this difficult, exhaustive, tearful world.  Jesus lived in it, died in it, and rose and walked in it again.  Jesus wraps us in a love that already defeated the pains we fight feeling every day. 

This verse doesn't even need the meager explanation I've given.  Amidst the stress and strain of the world we don't need to feel beaten and battered, because Jesus holds us firmly in His sin-conquering hand.