Trouble
I have often thought that as humans we have this inherent feeling or desire for things to be good all the time or that we should feel good all the time. We certainly seem to work hard toward fixing and correcting, and being irritated when things don’t go our way. I guess spiritually speaking it is because God’s original design was for our perfection, and we still have that drive, at least at some level, to know and to be like God himself. It seems we work hard towards controlling our situations and expect and want our circumstances to be right.
The harsh reality however is “In this world you will have trouble…” (John 16:33). It seems as Christians we feel God should deliver us from problems. But I think Oswald Chambers says it well: the Christian life does not mean being delivered from adversity, but in adversity. The Biblical principle we see time and again is God using the tough times and allowing hard situations to strengthen and complete us. We appear to learn more and retain knowledge better when we experience God in times of difficulty. So maybe we just need a mind set change- that tough times are more normal than not, and to have an expectation that God will do something awesome in our life. Even in times of distress we can “be of good cheer” for Christ has “overcome the world.”