We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.
What do the words "crushed" or "broken" mean to you?
Physically, grapes are crushed to make wine; a window can be broken by a baseball. But what about people?
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the human condition - you can't ignore that troubles abound. Good, decent people can have health problems. Hard workers can find themselves unemployed. Those seeking friends might find themselves - in human terms - alone.
But we are not really alone. God never abandons us.
Does that mean all the world is just rainbows and flowers? Of course not. Humans - with both good intentions and bad intentions - have made many, many messes in this world. We get through this precisely because God never abandons us.
