We Got Trouble

I love the Rogers and Hammerstein play "The Music Man."

It reminds me of being a kid when my sister and all three brothers were in the local community version of this play. I was the left out donkey, the baby, the youngest and forced to sit on the sidelines and watch. I was so jealous of their cool costumes, getting to memorize lines, hanging out with the other kids in the production.

One of my favorite songs was "We Got Trouble" where all of the kids in the background got to sing "trouble, trouble, trouble" over and over during the whole song. I thought that was the coolest trick to be singing something completely annoying in the background while the grownups were trying to make sense of a song over the top of it. It sort of reminds me of the strange days we are living in right now. "We got trouble" is an understatement.

Lately it's been overwhelming. All the bad news, all the depressing, horribly deranged politics involved. I don't know what to believe anymore. Add that into 6 straight days of rain this week and it makes me want to reach for some Tequila.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Since we are smack dab in the Easter season, I have been spending more time in my Bible than ever. In church we have been reading about the life and times of Christ and were invited to read John 14 for our study of the week.

I read the first line of John 14 and it said "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and also in me."

Wow.

Isn't it funny how God gives us exactly what we need to hear when we need to hear it? I've been pondering that scripture all week and thinking how "today" those words are despite having been written centuries before. If God made a point to share this, it's up to me not to let my heart be troubled. I don't need to lug around all this freaky-ness of world. The Big Guy is still driving the ship and He's still in control.

I don't need to carry it. What a relief to let go of the trouble. And to realize we are not alone in this thing called life.