Nassim Taleb tells of a story of the turkey. The turkey has been fed by the farmer for 1,000 days. When it is cold, the turkey has a place indoors, provided by the farmer. When sick, the farmer nurses the turkey back to health. The turkey concludes that the farmer loves him.

One day, the farmer shows up with a truck and the excited turkey hops in for the ride of his life. In fact, it is the final ride of his life.

Now imagine this fictional story. It is about a group of a people's leaders who were working on a plague in a far away land. An identical plague begins in this same place, but the leaders of the people who developed the plague tell the people it wasn't their plague that is reeking havoc. Just a curious coincidence. Further, the leaders who developed the identical plague that was definitely not the one that  is now infecting the people have come up with a plan. They want to lock everybody up for a while, but they will give them money. The people conclude that their leaders love them. 

One day, the leaders show up with a cure, and the excited people hop on the bandwagon for the ride of their lives.

Silly stories, aren't they? But as silly as they are, it shows how important it is to have something in your life that doesn't change. This is what Christ offers:

For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8, RSV

We live in a confusing world. I suppose most of that confusion is created by the prince of this world, Satan, who is also called the father of lies. The Bible reveals that the devil hates us and desires our destruction. However, so many who live in this world have bought into the lies of the devil and those who follow him, and they choose to enjoy the life of sin for a season. They enjoy it so much, in fact, that they conclude that whoever or whatever is the source of this sin must love them. The ironic thing is that most of those who follow the devil's path do not even believe he exists.

But they are being set up for the slaughter, and must wake up before they get taken for that final ride of their lives.

Now, back to the stability and certainty that is available only in Christ. It is true that those who follow Christ will have bad things happen to them from time to time and some will give up following Him for that very reason. The ironic thing is that Christ is not the source of the bad things, but the cure. Still, many reject God's purpose and will abandon the One who has the cure, for the one who does not. 

It is very true that this life comes with tests and trials of many kinds, and no one is exempted from some hard times. The question is do we want to go through these hard times with the help of our loving Father, or do we want to try and handle them on our own?

Again, we live in confusing times. Many people are divided as to who and what the source of our problems are, and will often rely on the ones who appear to love them, and they will lash out violently at anyone who challenges their notions of that love. We turn on the news and see wars and riots and people spewing hateful speech at one another. It seems we cannot even have rational disagreements anymore, for every scrap of information that challenges our understanding is viewed as a challenge and a threat. Families and friends are being divided, with these precious relationships often being permanently severed. 

So, what is a person to do? People are genuinely asking us that very question and we need to be able to give them a solution that really works. So, what is the answer? It begins with the verse above, with the realization that Jesus will never change. For those who decide to follow His unchanging standards, there is hope... and this world needs hope!

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

and hope does not disappoint us,

because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us.

Romans 5:1-5, RSV