Could someone please direct me to the land where, “seldom is heard a discouraging word”? 

Maybe it is just me, but lately it seems most people, including those in buffalo-roaming states, are seeing the skies as cloudy all day.  Sadly, a disheartening dirge of dismay, akin to the nearly inaudible hum of electric power, is emerging as the background music of this decade. 

Do a bit of eavesdropping on the metro, in a coffee shop or in the aisles of a grocery store and I think you will hear it too: the draining drone of discouragement. I hear its melody in the mood of those around me and read its voice in print. 

Take for example the cover of June’s Reader’s Digest where the words, “Oh, cheer up!” are splashed in bold yellow across the cover.    

How do I do that; how do I “cheer up” when everything from Swine Flu to a coming economic earthquake looms large on the horizon? How do I retain a positive attitude when “it depends” is no longer a mindset reserved for attorneys in John Grisham novels but rather is the everyday response to social order once so clearly defined as right or wrong?  

Yesterday’s Judeo-Christian conflicts have now become today’s crises. The shifting sands of change and political correctness threaten to cover the solid rock of Christ making it nearly indistinguishable from other dunes in the desert of moral relativism.

Observing the past and what is happening today, I too could easily become discouraged. Yet, in my wallet I carry a thin oval of pink quartz etched with the word “remember”. From time to time someone else will see the stone and question what it is I need to remember. 

What I need, no, choose to remember is the words of Christ when He explained to His disciples, just as you can tell summer is near when the fig tree puts forth its leaves you can also tell that my return is near by recognizing the signs given by the prophets. 

As I watch these signs fulfilled in the headlines of today, I am able to look with great anticipation beyond the past and present to the future and the promised return of my Lord.   No one knows when that will take place and there is nothing I can do to make it happen sooner or later.  All I can do is wait patiently and watch for Him with my head held high.     

In 1939, soon after the English declared war with Germany, C.S. Lewis addressed the students of Oxford University with words that to this day continue to inspire us all. “This impending war has taught us some important things.  Life is short.  The world is fragile.  All of us are vulnerable, but we are here because that is our calling.  Our lives are rooted not only in time, but also in eternity, and the life of learning, humbly offered to God is its own reward.”     

My short life is also rooted in eternity and I am not here by accident in this season filled with signs of the Lord’s return. I have a role to play in helping others find their way to firm footing while simultaneously encouraging my fellow rock dwellers. 

So, as I patiently wait and watch for the Lord’s return, I will echo the words of the Psalmist and sing, “Oh my soul, why be so gloomy and discouraged?  Trust in God!  I shall praise Him for his wondrous help; he will make me smile again, for He is my God!” 

Why not sing along?  It sure beats the disheartening hum of dismay…