The Highs and Lows of Life
If you have lived very much of your adult life, you have been through some “highs” and some “lows” in life. Even teenagers go through these periods of being on top of the world one day and down in the pits the next. Sometimes senior citizens feel as though all they have left are the lows of life and that all of the high points in life are passed and gone.
This topic came to my mind as I have been studying through the book of Jeremiah, the prophet of God. You remember him, don’t you – the weeping prophet? God, in His infinite wisdom, knew Jeremiah before he was formed in his mother’s womb (Jer. 1:5). He had a plan for Jeremiah’s life which included being a spokesman for God – a prophet – to speak with and plead with those in Judah to stop their sin and idolatry and return to God in faithfulness (Jer. 1:9-10).
After some 20 years of preaching to these people and pleading with them to return to God, Jeremiah is worn out. Chapter 20 begins to show his breakdown and some of his physical mistreatment by those who were priests and leaders of the Temple guard. At this point in the life of Jeremiah, he begins to wish he had never been born or, at least, had died on the day of his birth.
Jeremiah is a hard book to study, but it has caused me to reflect on my life and some of the difficulties I have dealt with in my life. While they were and are difficult to handle, they do not begin to compare to what Jeremiah went through.
It is easy to think that anything difficult that comes along in life that we have to face and work our own way through only happens to us. Illness, loss of a job, mistreatment by fellow Christians, unfaithfulness of a spouse, disobedient children, death of a loved one -and the list could go on and on- are all unpleasant happenings in life which we all must face. And yet, when we face them, we are not usually alone. There are those who care for us and stand beside us in our times of need.
Jeremiah felt alone because no other person came to his aid, but God was on his side and with him through all the years that he prophesied for Him.
When we feel down and alone, we would do well to remember some words, also written by the Prophet Jeremiah…
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in Him.”
(Lamentations 3:22-24)
AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
