When Trouble Arises

It was last month. The delayed flight back from the mission trip was suddenly changed to arrive at Kansai Airport instead of Itami Airport during the flight because of the air traffic instructions. It was troublesome at that time because I had parked my car at Itami Airport. At Kansai airport, we arrived at midnight, and many people were confused and frustrated as they could not be convinced that the compensation was only the transportation expense from Kansai to Itami to be paid. I wanted more compensation as well because I had parked at Itami airport, and it would cost me the transportation fee and the extra parking fee for the next day. But I just kept silent.

Things like this sometimes happen in life. At such a time, we blame shift by asking, “whose fault is this?” and try to claim our “rights” to receive compensation. For most of the time, such a claim seems reasonable and right. Some people fight stubbornly to claim these reasonable rights. That is not a bad thing, but rather a right thought.

However, if we try to live continuing this “fight” for demanding our “rights”, we will lose something important. That something is often not noticed at that time, and it takes time for us to realize what it is.

Those who are in Christ, who try to be in Christ, when trouble arises like this, we tend to

accept it as what God has allowed, or God has intended it, and consider what His will is when we face them. We must be calm and think, turn back to God, not consider what was lost, but fix our eyes on God and think about how we should respond. If we do so, God will take care of it, and even if not, we tend to remember that’s okay, too. Actually, when we look back later, most of the time we will realize that it was not a big deal. God will surely bless those who choose to walk in such a way by faith.

Pastor Takeshi