Signs of the Times

with contributions from A. F. Jordan

Durham Morning Herald

From an editorial in the Durham Morning Herald
Durham, North Carolina

"Have you tried faith?" With that simple question a wise counselor turned to those seeking his guidance and challenged their belief.

It was obvious these people in trouble had tried everything else. They had exercised the power of money: they had consulted influential people; they had utilized political pressures; they had exhausted every possible means to get accomplished something that to them. and to others, was not only worthy but in some ways essential for not only their own welfare but the welfare of others.

Then the counselor asked if they had tried faith. The story has it that these people were known as church people, regular in attendance and support. They had heard many sermons on faith and had given their tacit agreement to what the preacher had told them.

They had been taught to believe that with faith it is possible to do many things that could not otherwise be accomplished. Yet they had never given faith a real trial. They had depended upon their own self-made resources, and had overlooked a source of divine power that might have turned their venture into success long before. It is a story that could be repeated in the lives of many people....

Too often in everyday living it is much simpler to have one's own and purely selfish ideas as to how something ought to be done. Following that selfish way gets more disaster. But when one is willing to trust in a power greater than one's self, and to believe that in such is to be found salvation and redemption, the success of such faith is a powerful demonstration of the care God has for His people.

The Reverend A. F. Jordan
in The Birmingham Post
Birmingham, England

Let down by his friends, fed up and unhappy, the Psalmist indulges in wishful thinking: "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." He wouldn't, you know— for a deserter never finds rest. We may sympathise with his mood, but running away is no solution. It never is.

He soon discovers that for himself and gives the advice: "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." True "rest" has nothing to do with idleness or escape. It is not an outward stale but an inward quality. The promise is that God will sustain. He does!

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April 22, 1967

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