2 Corinthians 2-4

(July 26, 2015)

                I appreciated Paul’s description of the proper way to deal with difficult situations (particularly his description of being perplexed but not in despair). Oftentimes we are confronted with things we don’t understand.  Perhaps it is a mystery in the scriptures – something that doesn’t seem to make sense to us and we cannot understand it.  Or perhaps it is something the Priesthood leadership has said or done, that doesn’t seem right or fit our political or cultural or some other viewpoint.  Or maybe it is that our life has taken an unexpected direction and we cannot see what the Lord has in mind for us.

                Regardless of what it is, the important thing is how we respond to these challenges.  Paul is correct that even when we are perplexed – even if we cannot imagine the Hand of the Lord at work in what is happening – we have no cause to despair.  We arrive at this point through the experience of being in similar situations before where we could not imagine the hand of the Lord being at work and yet, in the end, seeing that it was His Hand at work all along and we have been blessed by the very thing we feared would destroy us.