A Remedy For Rough Times

A Remedy for Rough Times

I hold in my hands a copy of the cover of Time Magazine for October l3th. The heading is “The New Hard Times”. It contains a picture of men lined up at a Soup Kitchen during the days of the depression in the l930’s.

I was a young child during the depression. My most graphic memory of it was when my father came home one day and told my mother that he had been laid off. As a child I understood that my father had lost his job, but the implications of that did not penetrate my childish mind. I did not understand how that would effect my life. Food would be more scarce. There was the danger of loosing out home. How would we get help from welfare? I can remember my father selling shoe strings and other small items on the street corner. Those were rough times.

Today our country is going through hard economic and financial times. People are in danger of loosing their homes. Banks are threatened with closure. 401ks and other retirement and savings funds are taking a tumble. People face loosing jobs as employers cut their costs. Economists say we are heading for a recession. The only questions are how bad will it be and how long will it last. The bailout may help, but Wall Street faces rough going. The prediction is that l00’s of banks may fail. The pain of Wall Street will trickle down to become the plague of Main Street.

The bottom line is that the financial crisis will eventually effect almost everybody and have repercussions around the world. Who can deny that these are rough times? All ages will be effected by the crisis from the youngest to the eldest. The difficulty in getting credit, the loss of jobs, the hardship in sending kids to college, and many other things, will effect everyone in some way. Stores are going to face a rough Christmas season as customers cut down on their buying. Churches like this one face rough times as giving tends to fall because of the economic situation. These are rough times.

Then others face rough times of another kind. Many are growing older and face the loss of energy and strength as aging takes its toll upon the human body. Almost overnight, we discover we cannot do what we used to do. We can’t walk as long or as fast as we used to. We can’t see or hear as well as we used to. Senior moments become more and more frequent. These are rough times for many people.

Some may face a crisis in the family through illness or some problem with the children. Young people are having a rough time adjusting to new school situations or in getting along with peers or family members. They may face rough times in a relationship with a girl friend or a boy friend. Even if we are not going through a rough time now, rough times will surely come. All of us from the youngest to the oldest will experience rough times sooner or later.

We were never promised an easy road on the journey of life. No one is immune from rough times. You can take a flue shot or some other immunization to ward off illness. But there are no shots or immunization to protect us from rough times. No matter how young or how old we are, rough times will come. You may say that you are not going through a rough time now. But just keep on living, and sooner or later you too will come face to face with rough times.

If you are going through a rough time now, no matter what it may be, you are looking for a remedy. A remedy is that which cures or restores or corrects or helps relieve any ailment, disease, or condition you may have. If you are sick or afflicted in any way, spiritually, physically, mentally, or emotionally, you need a remedy, something that will help and assist you and hopefully relieve you or rescue you from the condition you are in. When we are in a rough situation, we are looking for some remedy.

If you have ever had a prescription filled for some medication, you may have noticed there is a symbol on the prescription which says Rx. Rx is a symbol for recipe in a prescription. Rx means you are to take the medication described on the prescription according to the directions for the administration of a remedy for whatever ails you. We need a remedy for rough times.

Maybe someone here is going through a rough time. I want to suggest to you that God has a remedy for your situation. God is always ready and able to write a prescription that will speak to the situation you are in.