Dear Friends,

While this is supposed to be a season filled with joy, we may stumble into this question: How bad can things get? 
 
I suppose we all ask ourselves this question every once in a while.  It especially happens when a series of things go wrong.  You wake up not feeling well.  The toilet gets clogged and overflows.  Then your son calls and is in a financial bind.  Then you get in your car to drive to work, and one of the tires is flat.  You realize you are feeling really terrible.  Your phone rings again.  It’s your dentist, reminding you about your appointment tomorrow!
 
We’ve all had days like this.  The details may be different, but the mounting, cumulative troubles are not.  That’s why we can relate to Psalm 126: 
 

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
   we were like those who dream. 
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
   “The Lord has done great things for them.” 
The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced.

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
   like the watercourses in the Negeb. 
May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy. 
Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.

 
This Psalm was written in response to the Babylonian Exile, when the Israelites were essentially indentured to their captors.  It’s not hard to imagine them working in those foreign fields, losing hope, and beginning to weep.
 
Yet the time for reaping comes, and there are shouts of joy!  Something has happened, and it must be something big.  The people have become “like those who dream” whose “mouth was filled with laughter.”
 
Something has happened.  Something is happening!
 
No matter how bad things might get, hang in there.  I’ll see you in church.
 
Craig