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Troubles
That Missed The Train
"Some
of your griefs you have cured, And the sharpest you still
have survived; But what torments of pain you endured From
the evils that never arrived."
Professor Meyer, of Stanford University, says, "It is
our fears that often bring us our worst
perplexities." The things that happen to us are
usually not nearly so bad as the things we expect to
happen that do not happen.
Review your life and count how many troubles you foresaw
and feared, whose dark shadows lay across your way
possibly for years. Many of these troubles never arrived.
They missed their train somewhere. They failed to make
connection or they were run off in some other direction.
Anyway, the trouble you looked for and planned for and
expected and feared and shrank from never came your way.
Many other troubles that looked so great in prospect, when
you actually faced them, when they were close enough to
touch, were not at all the terrible things you thought
them to be. Some of them you surmounted easily. Some of
them you laughed at. Some of them you made
stepping-stones. Some of them just faded out of the
picture.
Did you ever read the old story of the servant girl whom
her mistress found one day in the kitchen weeping? Her
mistress said, "Why, Mary, what are you crying
about?" "Oh," she wailed, "I am afraid
my children will be drowned." "Why," said
her mistress, "you are not even married."
"No," said she, "but I was thinking how
awful it would be if I should marry and have children and
they should fall in the river and drowned."
We smile at this tale but many of us are just as foolish
this servant girl. Never go out into the future to meet
your troubles. If they are coming they will come anyway.
They will get to you soon enough. Do not run to meet them.
Just let them alone and most of them will go some other
way. In one way or another they Will miss the train and
never reach you.
Many people are like Martha. They are "careful and
troubled about many things." Not a few people are
like Nebuchadnezzar. He said, "I saw a dream which
made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the
visions of my head troubled me" (Dan. 4: 5). Daniel
also said, "The visions of my head troubled me"
(Dan. 7:15). Many people have written me about dreams they
have had asking me to interpret them or to tell them if I
think they portend trouble.
There are hundreds of people who are disturbed by things
they dream or experiences they have just as they wake from
sleep. They have impressions of various sorts. Some of
them are very unusual. Some people are troubled for years
over something they have dreamed. It is true that we read
in the Bible of people having dreams that had
significance. These dreams, however, were very unusual.
Perhaps a man would have two or three such dreams in a
lifetime. All the rest of his dreams were without
significance. If God should give any of us a dream he
would see that we learned its meaning. He would not leave
us to be troubled over it very long.
Never worry over your dreams. Never interpret them as
meaning trouble coming to you unless you go farther and
believe it is God's way of helping you out of the trouble
by forewarning you and thus enabling you to be prepared to
meet it when it comes. But God never gives you a dream to
frighten you unless to awaken you from sin. He never gives
you a dream to trouble you, so do not trouble over them.
There are other people who get troubled over thoughts that
come into their minds. They do not know the source of
these thoughts. A thought makes a strong impression upon
their mind. They cannot shake it off. Then they feel that
there is some hidden meaning in that thought and they
worry about it and wonder about it. Never allow yourself
to be troubled over such things.
Then there are others who have thoughts of evil come into
their mind. They put them away but speedily they return.
They condemn themselves for these thoughts. They think
they are not right with God or they would not have such
thoughts. There may be many other reasons for their coming
into the mind and for their persistence in returning to
the mind. Displace these thoughts by good thoughts all you
can, but do not worry over them.
At many railroad crossings there are derails. If one train
is about to run into another on a crossing it can be
derailed and a collision prevented. We need a derail for
our troubles. Perhaps another figure would be a
side-track. One can become quite an expert in side
tracking troubles. The best way to side-track our troubles
is set forth in the text, "Casting all your care upon
him for he careth for you." This is a lesson we all
need to learn. The Lord is ever ready to help us in all
times of need. We do not have to bear anything alone. The
Lord is a present help in every time of trouble. Let us
learn to rely upon him.
Some people, in a different sense, have a side-track of
their own, with an open switch. Every car of trouble that
comes along runs in on their siding. If we must have a
siding we should keep the switch closed. We should keep
out of other people's troubles. Most of the troubles many
people have are from getting into other people's troubles.
We should take precautions to have all the troubles that
do not belong to us passed on to the ones to whom they
belong and not accept them ourselves nor be partners with
them in them. To be sure we should help others all we can,
but we should not load up with their troubles.
Study the verse at the head of this chapter. Get the
lesson in it. Then so face the world and so master
yourself that you will not cross your bridges before you
get to them nor suffer from your troubles before they
arrive. Ever keep in mind the fact that most of them will
miss the train and will never arrive and whatever you
might suffer from them from anticipation is useless
suffering.
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