Prayer #85: In Good Times

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Prayer #85: In Good Times

I don't trust the good times.

They're too special. Too comfortable. Too reassuring.

Too good, in short, to be true.

I'd rather live through bad times. Then at least I'm not sitting around waiting for my certain demise. Because nothing good lasts forever, nothing bad lasts forever, and this cycle is just a fact of life that only foolish people ignore.

Ascensions are easier to anticipate than downfalls.

But I want to have faith in the good times, Lord. I want to have faith that joy is an undercurrent, not a darting ripple. I want to have faith that when hiccups and bumps and roadblocks come again (because they will), they do not crowd out happiness, but coexist with it. Not erase it, but illuminate it.

You are a God who does not differentiate the cause of tears -- only that we feel enough to shed them. Please share this understanding with me too, so I can better live in -- and live out -- the good times.

Amen.