Vicissitudes

I've got music for any that come my way. Sad times? I listen to Pink Floyd's High Hopes over and over and over again...until I'm finally ready to start feeling better.


Or the new-found quiet after the storms are past? That's the right time for listening to Leona Lewis' Footprints in the Sand.


When I was in my teens, I didn't know that sunshine always followed the clouds. IfI was miserable for a time, I mistakenly thought it was my new permanent condition. Life has taught me that there is always a way up and out of the darkness, back into the light. It is my job, my quest, to rise, and once again seek for the light.

When I was about 14 or 15 years old, I was walking from a class in the main school building to the nearby gym for my PE class. Suddenly, I fell into a deep pit, and I was in over my head! I dug my fingers into the sides of the pit so that I could climb out. But the dirt crumbled away, leaving me nothing to hold onto. Yelling for help was beneath my teenage dignity. What could I do? Once I heard the ominous sound of a piece of heavy equipment coming in my direction, it required no thought at all. I didn't care about crumbling dirt anymore. The pit could fall in on itself for all it mattered to me. I just powered my way up and out of the pit, and was free! I proceeded on to class as if nothing had happened. Never even mentioned it to anyone gbut a couple of classmates.

Lookingh back, that quirky experience has meaning for me. It was an abrupt fall from safety into the unexpected and unknown. I persevered, and I came out none the worse for wear that time. Since then, I've had many sudden changes in circumstances, or vicissitudes of life. Sadly, I haven't always emerged unscathed. I have emerged though, and I guess that's enough for now. I believe that it is necessary to get knocked down in life, and that it is vital to get back up again. Jesus Christ, my Savior, has helped me stand up many times. Not as quickly as I'd like, but the help has always come, eventually, and it always will. Even when life is done here on earth, He will see to it that we rise again, just as He did. In Him, I trust. My trust, my love, my gratitude, He has all three.