Anniversary

46 years ago, attending a campus fellowship group I hadn't intended to go to (but was too embarrassed to leave), I ended up praying to ask Jesus Christ to forgive me and come into my life. I was astounded by the sense of peace that I felt for the next hour or two. But the feeling faded, and the next morning I wondered what on earth I had done.

In those first few hours, I see a pattern I've seen many times since. God is surprisingly powerful and active, but also surprisingly subtle. Sometimes he shows his power, sometimes he does not, and you have to remember what you have seen of it.

In this imperfect world

a strategy of "I will be OK as long as nothing bad happens to me," is not going to work. It may already have obviously failed, but if it hasn't, don't trust it.

A real strategy must face that bad things happen that we cannot always prevent. We should try to prevent bad things where we can, but we cannot prevent them all. How to recover when bad things happen?  Seek a relationship with God. God instructs and guides how to live so that bad things happen less often, but he also offers wisdom and grace to recover and keep going when bad things do happen.