Just the other day a friend sent me this encouraging note:

If you have the inner strength to:

Start the day without caffeine
Be cheerful and ignore aches and pains
Resist complaining about your troubles
Understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time
Overlook the times when loved ones take things out on you
Take criticism and blame without resentment
Face the world without lies and deceit
And conquer tension without medication . . .

Then you are most likely the family dog.

I was in a doctor's office recently and found this note posted to his receptionist's desk: "Lord, so far I have been good. I haven't complained about anything, or griped at anyone. I haven't lied, cheated, or stolen. I haven't had bad thoughts, or been guilty of greed, pride, or anger. But in a moment I'm going to get out of bed, Lord, and I'm going to need all the help I can get." That's my prayer as well.

You and I are fallen people, living in a fallen world. Success is not the avoidance of problems, but learning how to redeem them. It is not a race run without stumbling, but a race completed by those who get up when they fall down. A famous CEO said on the news recently, "Leadership is solving problems--nothing else." Faith is not the absence of fear--it is the decision to act when we're afraid. It is learning to find the rainbow at the end of the storm.

Does a flood have you running for cover today? Are you camped out on an ark, trying to survive? Swimming in a rainstorm that won't end? Why did this happen to you? How could God be loving and allow this, or even cause it? What do you do now?

We're not the first to ask our questions, of course. But someone was. Let's ask him for help today.