Trust in the Midst of Trouble

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, 

O LORD, from my youth. 

(From Psalm 71 )

Reading novels by the Icelandic author, Jon Kalman Stefansson, has given me a new perspective on the meaning of a hard life at the "ends of the earth".

The Heaven and Hell trilogy begins as six fishermen get into an eight by twenty-foot sixareen rowing from their remote fishing village through the protecting waters of a fjord towards the open sea.

Their wives, standing at the shore, pray the Lord will return them safely.

Once into the raging, frigid,open waters of the Norwegian Sea, the men row for hours three miles out to into the deep before tossing their nets into the high seas.

The men are risking their lives as they cope with the overwhelming cold, wind, risk drowning unable to swim to feed their families.

By God's Grace, they'll be rewarded with an abundance of Cod, and return safely home able to feed their families.

A severe snow storm develops, blinding the shoreline from the fishermen.

Each boat must begin rowing against the sea and towards what they believe is shelter of the fjord and village.

They are in the midst of trouble.

I haven’t been in an eight by twenty-foot rowboat in the open sea and don’t plan on it.

I have, as you may have being human, found myself in the midst of life’s troubles.

As one who has placed my hope and trust in the Lord "from my youth", I am convinced the Lord knows our life's troubles.

The scriptures repeatedly say God’s that the one who cries out to God, as Jesus cried out in trouble, is heard and understood.

God’s assurance of hope is that the one who cries out to God, as Jesus cried out to God in trouble, is heard and understood.