But I was just wondering...

"I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when feeling it not.
I believe in God even when he is silent."


These words were found by American soldiers engraved into the wall of a cellar in Cologne, Germany in 1945. You see, during the Holocaust, Jews hid from Nazis in any way they could. So, while this person what running for their life, huddled with who knows how may others (maybe family, maybe strangers) in a cold, dark, damp cellar, they didn't focus on the depression they could have easily and understandably fallen into, nor the death that surely awaited were they to climb outside. No, instead, this person found beauty. It may have been weeks since this person had seen the sunshine. People were dying all around them, God was not answering their desperate prayers, and they felt utterly alone. There is no love in war. No beauty in destruction. No hope in oppression. And yet, this person found all of those things.

So, tell me, please.
Why is it that I can't seem to do the same?
In the face of, by comparison, a far less desperate situation?
Why is it so much easier to complain than to find hope?
Why is it so much easier to be depressed than to be optimistic?
Why do we make mountains of molehills?

Why?

What stops us?
These trials we face. They are significant to us, yes.
Possibly the most important of our lives.
But if we can't believe the sun still shines when we are in darkness, how can we ever hope to find it again? How can we ever expect to find love when we give up?
And how can we ever expect God to answer us if we stop listening?
How will we ever deal with the real adversity we will inevitably face?

I know not all of you believe in love.
And even fewer believe in God.
That's fine. I'm not trying to push my beliefs on you.
But maybe if we look at the big picture, the trials we face might seem smaller.

Just saying.