My colleague stopped by my office the other day, with a wary face. He asked me if I had known certain new data analysis tool. I shook my head and told him that I was not aware of such a tool. He was told by management to switch to a new tool because the current tool he has been using is going away. He was frustrated as he has invested a lot of time and efforts on the current tool to automate his work. Unfortunately, I couldn’t offer much help. I can only sympathize as the same situation happened to me a year ago – I have to scramble around in order to migrate my automated work to a new tool. Sigh! Life is not always as smooth as you would have dreamed of even you have done your part.

Then, a funny news broke out last week. There is a man who has dreamed to go to a place for vacation for a long time. When that day came, he happily hopped on an airplane heading toward his dreaming location. Only to find out that due to an operation error of the Airline, he was sent to a totally different location. I could image how shock he was when he arrived at the new location. Again, life is not always as smooth as you would like.

This makes me wonder what is your take on “when thing goes haywire”. One way you can do, I think, is laughing at it and then life goes on. The other way, you may do is gnashing your teeth and mulling it over by yourself. Or, you can seek help from others to solve the unexpected situation, just like my colleague. You may say: I would select my action based on the situation. Yes, it is true. The trouble is our assessment of the situation oftentimes is miscalculated or misjudged – we think we can handle it and therefore we choose to mull it over by our self. Quickly we find out that we are not capable of solving it. My most recent painful experience was on my car repairs, for example.

Jesus, in His last teaching to His disciples, clearly told them that “in this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). So we should not be surprised when we see things go haywire because we are His children and besides, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun 已有的事後必再有，已行的事後必再行，日光之下並無新事 (Ecclesiastes 1:9)”. The only NEW thing can happen is under the SON of God – He gives us new life and restores our relationship with God.

When we realize that life is not always smooth and is full of erratic, we learn that not everything is under our control. In fact, we have to realize that “nothing” is under our control! The only one who is in control is God! He is the LORD of all. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, please be ready to ask help from our God when we face difficulties, because He is merciful and He promised that we can approach His throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).

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Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.