It all began months ago, early last fall. But I remember the incident like it was yesterday. I was in what my small grandsons mistakenly call the “raspberry”. My wife and I call it my “library”, as it contains the remnants of my multiple volume professional library accumulated over a forty plus year career in ministry. In reality, it is a man cave. But I digress...
I was there moving an object that was fairly heavy. Unfortunately, I was doing so barefooted. Sure enough, I dropped the object in question on my left big toe. Ouch! I danced around for a few minutes, suffering significant pain and doing my best to suppress both my anger and any resultant foul language!
In the short term, I suffered a bloody toe. In the medium term, I endured a sore, swollen, black and blue toe. And in the long run, I faced a third issue. A dark bluish black spot appeared at the cuticle. As the days unfolded, the small spot grew larger and larger. It also began to migrate ever so slowly up the nail.
A few months later, just after the first of the year, I visited my primary care physician for my annual physical. While there, I asked him about the big blueish black spot on my toe. He took one look at it and reassured me that what I was suffering with was a “Subungual Hematoma”, which occurred due to an injury resulting in blood collecting between the nail and the nail bed.
His advice to me? It may be ugly to look at; but it is nothing to worry about. It will continue to climb its way up my toenail until it eventually grows up and out from under my toenail, completely disappearing.
In other words… “This too shall pass!”
Now, some two months later, everything he predicted is coming true. Let’s just say that the spot in question is now nearing the finish line! Soon, it will cross over and disappear altogether. Thereafter, it will be as if it had never even been there.
As I have reflected on this, I have been reminded of the phrase: “This too shall pass!” While not technically found in the Bible, this particular phrase is nonetheless attributed to King Solomon. According to ancient Jewish folklore…
King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words “This too will pass.” The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.
This story carried such historical weight that no less an individual then Abraham Lincoln alluded to it in and address he gave in 1859…
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
I have never met King Solomon. Nor have I ever met Abraham Lincoln. I hope to remedy both of these shortcomings by meeting each of these individuals in the afterlife.
But I did have the privilege in this world of knowing a man named Ron Carlson. Ron himself is now in Heaven; and his sons are carrying on his life work, Christian Ministries International, which he founded way back in 1975 and which he devoted to providing reasons for believing the truths of Scripture.
On multiple occasions, Ron spoke at the church I pastored, during “Apologetics” events we hosted – “Apologetics” being the field of theology devoted to rationally defending the Christian faith.
Ron was a brilliant man; and he bequeathed to us a voluminous
collection of video and audio presentations designed to aid believers in the field of “Apologetics”. For that, I am thankful.
But I will always remember Ron for another reason. In a presentation he once made to our congregation, he waxed philosophical with regard to life’s difficulties. In that presentation, he repeatedly stated: “Ah, just give it two weeks.”
His point was that the vast majority of whatever presently may seem so pressing, so threatening, and/or so overwhelming is in fact likely to prove nothing of the sort. That is to say that so much of what we fret and worry over never comes to fruition. As Mark Twain once put it: “I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened!”
This is why I so treasure a faded old cross-stitch my sister once gave me, which says: “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday, and all is well!” My toenail issue, as gross as it may be, simply proves to underscore this truth.
Of course, long before Mark Twain, Ron Carlson, or my sister and I ever existed, Jesus Himself proffered some similar wisdom. In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25-34, He states:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
In other words, stop worrying so much! After all, so much of what you worry about won’t ever really come to pass! But what will come to pass is a day when so much of what you worried about never even came to pass!
While the Bible does not technically say “This too shall pass!”, it does often say “And it came to pass!” The beauty of this latter phrase is that it is not based merely on assertion, but also on testimony as well. Time and again in the lives of people recorded on its pages, the Bible affirms that whatever difficulty they were facing was only temporary, and was eventually surpassed by a better day.
This is a welcome reminder. For it underscores for us that so much of what we worry about is, in the end, only temporary. Therefore, be encouraged, my friend. Much of what we face today will pass. And tomorrow will be a better day.!
SOURCES:
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/bleeding-under-nail;
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/does-the-bible-say-this-too-shall-pass.html;
https://medium.com/learning-for-life/this-too-shall-pass-tracing-an-ancient-jewish-folktale-6f5a1aaa0a0e;
https://www.christianministriesintl.org/;
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/201777-i-ve-had-a-lot-of-worries-in-my-life-most.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/6.htm.
I was there moving an object that was fairly heavy. Unfortunately, I was doing so barefooted. Sure enough, I dropped the object in question on my left big toe. Ouch! I danced around for a few minutes, suffering significant pain and doing my best to suppress both my anger and any resultant foul language!
In the short term, I suffered a bloody toe. In the medium term, I endured a sore, swollen, black and blue toe. And in the long run, I faced a third issue. A dark bluish black spot appeared at the cuticle. As the days unfolded, the small spot grew larger and larger. It also began to migrate ever so slowly up the nail.
A few months later, just after the first of the year, I visited my primary care physician for my annual physical. While there, I asked him about the big blueish black spot on my toe. He took one look at it and reassured me that what I was suffering with was a “Subungual Hematoma”, which occurred due to an injury resulting in blood collecting between the nail and the nail bed.
His advice to me? It may be ugly to look at; but it is nothing to worry about. It will continue to climb its way up my toenail until it eventually grows up and out from under my toenail, completely disappearing.
In other words… “This too shall pass!”
Now, some two months later, everything he predicted is coming true. Let’s just say that the spot in question is now nearing the finish line! Soon, it will cross over and disappear altogether. Thereafter, it will be as if it had never even been there.
As I have reflected on this, I have been reminded of the phrase: “This too shall pass!” While not technically found in the Bible, this particular phrase is nonetheless attributed to King Solomon. According to ancient Jewish folklore…
King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words “This too will pass.” The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.
This story carried such historical weight that no less an individual then Abraham Lincoln alluded to it in and address he gave in 1859…
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
I have never met King Solomon. Nor have I ever met Abraham Lincoln. I hope to remedy both of these shortcomings by meeting each of these individuals in the afterlife.
But I did have the privilege in this world of knowing a man named Ron Carlson. Ron himself is now in Heaven; and his sons are carrying on his life work, Christian Ministries International, which he founded way back in 1975 and which he devoted to providing reasons for believing the truths of Scripture.
On multiple occasions, Ron spoke at the church I pastored, during “Apologetics” events we hosted – “Apologetics” being the field of theology devoted to rationally defending the Christian faith.
Ron was a brilliant man; and he bequeathed to us a voluminous
collection of video and audio presentations designed to aid believers in the field of “Apologetics”. For that, I am thankful.
But I will always remember Ron for another reason. In a presentation he once made to our congregation, he waxed philosophical with regard to life’s difficulties. In that presentation, he repeatedly stated: “Ah, just give it two weeks.”
His point was that the vast majority of whatever presently may seem so pressing, so threatening, and/or so overwhelming is in fact likely to prove nothing of the sort. That is to say that so much of what we fret and worry over never comes to fruition. As Mark Twain once put it: “I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened!”
This is why I so treasure a faded old cross-stitch my sister once gave me, which says: “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday, and all is well!” My toenail issue, as gross as it may be, simply proves to underscore this truth.
Of course, long before Mark Twain, Ron Carlson, or my sister and I ever existed, Jesus Himself proffered some similar wisdom. In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25-34, He states:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
In other words, stop worrying so much! After all, so much of what you worry about won’t ever really come to pass! But what will come to pass is a day when so much of what you worried about never even came to pass!
While the Bible does not technically say “This too shall pass!”, it does often say “And it came to pass!” The beauty of this latter phrase is that it is not based merely on assertion, but also on testimony as well. Time and again in the lives of people recorded on its pages, the Bible affirms that whatever difficulty they were facing was only temporary, and was eventually surpassed by a better day.
This is a welcome reminder. For it underscores for us that so much of what we worry about is, in the end, only temporary. Therefore, be encouraged, my friend. Much of what we face today will pass. And tomorrow will be a better day.!
SOURCES:
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/bleeding-under-nail;
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/does-the-bible-say-this-too-shall-pass.html;
https://medium.com/learning-for-life/this-too-shall-pass-tracing-an-ancient-jewish-folktale-6f5a1aaa0a0e;
https://www.christianministriesintl.org/;
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/201777-i-ve-had-a-lot-of-worries-in-my-life-most.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/6.htm.