Dealing with Trouble

After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.
2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem,
3 he planned with his officers and his warriors to stop the flow of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him.
4 A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, saying, "Why should the Assyrian kings come and find water in abundance?"
5 Hezekiah set to work resolutely and built up the entire wall that was broken down, and raised towers on it, and outside it he built another wall; he also strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.
6 He appointed combat commanders over the people, and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
7 "Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him; for there is one greater with us than with him.
8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles." The people were encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.
2 Chron 32:1-8, NRSV

 Over the past several days, I have had the above scripture on my mind as I've meditated on the inevitability of trouble and crisis in life. It's a passage I've turned to often and I am sure I've blogged about it in the past. But, it is one of those that I think bears repeating. 

I wish trouble was not inevitable and that I could somehow find a solution that would enable me to avoid it 100% of the time. Unfortunately, it simply is not that easy. Sometimes we think that if we do everything right, crossing all our "t's" and dotting all our "i's", then we can avoid difficulty in life. But, crisis is indiscriminate, and while I do agree that we often bring allot of problems upon ourselves, adversity in life is absolutely unavoidable no matter how attentive and astute we live. Jesus, himself, told us this: 

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33, ESV

In our lives, trouble and suffering will always loom upon the horizon. They are inevitable simply because we are human and because we live in an imperfect world. The presence of difficulties in and of themselves do not imply anything negative about us. The important thing, however, is how we deal with crisis when it comes. Thankfully God does not leave us to our own devices and the story before us can teach us allot about how to conduct ourselves in the difficult times of life.