Paul Tripp: God is the author of your story. You see, you can rest even when you are confused; you can rest even when life doesn't make sense; you can rest even when you do not know what to do; you can rest even in moments of difficulty.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here now is Paul Tripp.

Paul Tripp: He was a gifted politician, part of one of the most amazing political stories you could ever imagine. His story was really quite amazing. He had grown up on a farm and had spent most of his boyhood years with animals, not really what you think was the preparation for a dynamic political career. He never dreamed as a boy that he would be where he finally ended up--the leader of one of the ruling countries of the world. It just didn't seem like that's where he was going, but that amazing story in the shock of a moment turned very, very ugly.

There was report of a coup, and to make it worse, the person who was determined to overthrow him and take his position was his son. It seemed impossible to believe, but it was true. And to add to the shock of it all, the word was that the hearts of the people of his country that he had led so faithfully were beginning to turn from him and were growingly supportive of his boy.

There was only one thing to do-run! And run he did! He was able to escape with a few of his closest confidants and advisers. There was nowhere to be safe and few people he could trust. So he found himself with a small band of faithful--hiding out in a cave. Think of how blown your mind would be! You've lost everything, and your son is your number one enemy. What would you be thinking? What in the world would you do?

Music: "Heaven Help Us All", lyrics by Stevie Wonder

Heaven help the boy who never had a home,
Heaven help the girl who walks the streets alone
Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall,
Lord, won't you help us all.
Heaven help the black man if he struggles one more day,
Heaven help the white man if he turns his back away,
Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl,
Heaven help us all.
Heaven help us all, Oh, Lord
Oh, Lord, heaven help us all, help us all.
Heaven help us, Lord,
Oh, Lord, hear our call
Hear our call, when we call
Oh, when we call, when we call

Kate Crowley: This is Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp. Well, what do you do when your world seems to have imploded, and it seems like you have lost it all? That's coming up in Paul's look at "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." We hope you can join us every day for Paul Tripp Ministries, Monday through Friday at 11 A.M., right here on WFIL.

It's here that you'll find that there really is help in Jesus Christ, right here, right now. Coming up are details on Paul's latest book, Lost In The Middle. Find details at paultrippministries.org, and while you're there, you'll find many resources designed to help you face the issues of life. That's paultrippministries.org. Here's Paul Tripp with more from Right Here, Right Now.

The Story of David and Absalom

Paul Tripp: I don't know if you realize it or not, but that heartbreaking story of political intrigue and violence is actually a very familiar biblical story. It's the story of David and Absalom. You probably can't read many stories in the Bible or anywhere else that are filled with more drama and angst, joy and sorrow, pain and disaster, than this story. It was a political and familial nightmare. And it's one of those sad stories that we hear about in life that you just know wasn't going to have a good ending.

You could just sense, as you read the story, that it's going someplace bad. And it did. David's son, Absalom, was killed in the middle of the coup. And in the story, you read the unbelievable grief of a broken father. As David gets the report of the death of his son, he crumbles in emotion and cries, "Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, Oh Absalom!"

Now think about it. Before that happened and David was in the cave, what would you have been doing as you were hiding out in the cave? What would you have been thinking as you were facing the evil that your son was going to do against you? What would you have tried to say to the people who were around you who were sort of your loyal followers?

Maybe the question is this. "When your heart is broken, when your heart is broken, what do you think? What you do?" Where do you run for rest when you're having trouble facing the things that are in your life? What are your patterns? How do you deal with things? When you're hurting, do you numb yourself with way too much television? Do you go out and spend way too much, hoping physical possessions will somehow bring you joy? Do you eat too much, asking the temporary pleasures of food to comfort your heart?

You see, if you think about it, you're always dealing with things like what David dealt with. No, not something this political, and, no, not something this dramatic, but life in a fallen world has sorrow with it. Life in a fallen world brings difficulty with it, and so, there's some way, somehow that I'm dealing with all the time.

I have some kind of patterns of dealing with the hardships of life in this broken, fallen world. Maybe you are asking food to bring you comfort. Or maybe you're trying to keep yourself busy so you simply don't have time to think. Somehow, some way you're dealing with what's on your plate. When you're up against it, where do you run for rest?

Music: "Building A Mystery" by Sarah Mclachlan

'Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on, holding it in
Oh yeah, you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully
'Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on, holding it in
Oh yeah, you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully

How Little of Your Life You Actually Control

Paul Tripp: Think with me for a minute about how little of your life you actually control. You did not choose where you would be born, yet the location of your birth shaped the entire story of your life. This impresses me every time I travel abroad. What would my life have been like if I'd been born on the violent streets of Belfast, or in the filth of a ghetto in New Delhi, or in a tiny flat in Moscow, or in an apartment in Seoul?

You did not choose the family you were born into, but how could any decision be more important than that? You did not choose what period of history you would be born into, yet it has shaped everything you have experienced.

Imagine what your life would've been like if you had been born into a peasant family in medieval Europe, or born on a wagon train heading for a tract of land in the Pioneer Northwest, or born to the family of an ancient Chinese craftsman, or if you'd been a slave in Pharaoh's Egypt? You did not choose the world events that would take place around you, but they have shaped your life nonetheless.

Almost every time I board a plane, I think about how a group of Middle Eastern men plotted for months to hijack planes and fly them into buildings. I did not know these men. I was not the target of their attack. Yet my sense of the world, my personal security, my habits of travel have been shaped at what they did.

You do not control the progress of science and knowledge, but your life has been shaped by that. You will live longer because of penicillin, aspirin, sterilization, the thermometer, the x-ray, and the MRI. We all need to be humbled by the vast number of things that have impacted our lives over which we exercise no decision and exercise no control.

My life is a perfect example. I did not plan to be born in Toledo, Ohio, to a man and a woman who had recently come to Christ. I did not plan to have the Scriptures read to me every day, or plan to go to church faithfully Sunday after Sunday. I did not plan how many brothers I would have, or that I would have an only sister. I did not plan where I would be in the order of my siblings. I did not plan what my personal gifts would be. I did not plan what the culture of my home would be like or the blessings and struggles that I would encounter there.

It's an amazing and humbling thing to admit, but almost all of my life was not my plan. The high school I attended--I didn't know I was going to be there; the college that I attended, I didn't know that's where I was going to end up; the woman that I married, I didn't know that I was going to marry her. The fact that the Vietnam War led me to seminary, I didn't know that was going to happen. The fact that after seminary, I ended up as a young pastor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. None of those things were part of my plan.

You see, one of the most comforting things in the Bible, as we face how our lives haven't worked according to our plan, is this amazing truth that you and I are not responsible for writing our own stories. The Bible is very clear about one essential, life-shaping fact; God is the author of your story.

You see, you can rest even when you are confused. You can rest even when life doesn't make sense. You can rest even when you do not know what to do. You can rest even when you are facing problems that you do not know how to solve. You can rest even in moments of difficulty. Maybe you're listening; maybe you're thinking, "Why? How? How can I rest when life doesn't make any sense?"

Here's where I think we make our mistake. I think that we become convinced that we will only be able to rest when we fully understand what's going on in our lives, that rest is the product, the result of understanding. And the Bible actually doesn't teach us that. The Bible actually teaches that real rest is found, not in understanding, because you will never understand everything in your life. Real rest is only ever found in placing your trust in the Person who is carefully and wisely writing your story for you.

Listen to what Paul says in Acts 17, beginning with verse 24. Speaking of God, he says, "He determines the times set for them and the exact places where they will live." Hmmm, what do these words actually mean, "He determines the time set for them and the exact places where they will live?" What does it mean? Well, it means your life is never out of control.

Sure, it will be out of your control a lot of the time, but it's never out of ultimate control, because, according to Paul, God is in intimate, personal contact and control of the specific details of your life. "How specific?" you may ask? Paul says that He determines the exact places where we all live, your address, your city; your time of life is all an expression of God's plan. And why is this so comforting? Because, Paul goes on to say, "That God involves Himself with the details of our lives so that He's always near, so that at any moment, we could reach out and touch Him because he's not far from each one of us."

You see, even though I am regularly surprised, and regularly confused, even though it would be often honest for me to say, "I don't have a clue what's going on." God is never surprised, and God is never confused. He always has His hands on the joystick, and He is the ultimate source of wisdom, and love, and power.

Let me say it again, "Real rest is not found in understanding because you will never come to understand everything in your life. Real rest is found in trusting the Person who is in control of the details of your life." You see, you and I do not have to crumble when we don't understand; we do not have to be paralyzed with fear because our plans have blown up in our face.

We don't have to dread what the next day will bring. We don't have to panic because life is bigger than us and confusing to us. You see, you and I can rest, really rest because God is wise, and loving, and powerful, and He is in moment by moment control of every detail of our lives.

Music: "Tender Love" by Phil Keaggyb & Geri Bobek

It's a tender love that's gonna see you through,
Whispering to your heart
So that you'll know what to do.
It's a tender love not about to let you go,
It's a tender love and there's
So much more to know.
Love that's holding me, tender and true,
Love that's molding me, seeing me through.
I've stood in true amazement
Of all you've done for me,
My faith so small, but you do it all,
You give it all for free.
It's a tender love that's gonna see you through,
Whispering to your heart
So that you'll know what to do.
It's a tender love not about to let you go,
It's a tender love and there's
So much more to know.

Where Are You Looking for Rest?

Paul Tripp: You see, we human beings are made to need rest. That's why God created a Sabbath of rest even in His creation plan. So it's worth asking the question, "Where are we looking for rest?" Have you come to understand that ultimate, personal rest, that inner sense of well-being, that calm and security that allows you to go about your day in peace and do what you were meant to do? It just doesn't come from analysis, from investigation, from explanations, and understanding.

If you were able to go to college and get a PhD in everyday life, there would still be things that confuse you. There would still be things that you wouldn't understand. If you're a wife, your husband will still have reactions that surprise you. If you're a parent, your kids will still respond in ways that surprise you. If you're paying attention, it's real clear; you're not the author of your own story.

There are things that happen in your individual life, and things that happen in the wider world, that you are required to live in the middle of, that you are required to deal with that you didn't plan, and you don't control. And for all of your desire to make sense of it all, for all of the ability that God has given your brain, to be rational, and to think, and to figure things out, that function is very good, but it's not exhaustive.

You see, what does that mean? Does it mean a life of panic, and dread, and fear, and anxiety? No! What it means is that real, lasting rest in the middle of life in this broken world is only found in a Person, the Lord. Remember David, remember him in that cave? Remember how he's hiding out from his son? Well, as he's doing that, he said these amazing words, it's just amazing for a father in this horrible, emotional situation to say this, but this is what he says, "In peace, I will both lie down and sleep because you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety."

Think about what David is saying, think about how amazing these words are. David is saying this, "I am able to lie down and rest, even in this cave, because the God who is in charge of my life is just as much with me here as He was in that palace." You see, David is able to rest because he understands that rest can only be found when you're resting in the Lord. He is in charge. He is writing your story. He is near, and He is wise, and He is loving, and He is very good.

Paul Tripp: Now here's the bottom line, if you're a human being, you're a rest junkie. You're after rest. You don't like being anxious; you don't like being afraid; you don't like being confused; you don't stand in the middle of your day and say, "My life is a complete mess, and that's okay with me." Nobody does that. There's somewhere you're going for rest; there's something that you're looking to to provide for you that inner sense of

well-being.

Where are you going for rest? Where are you going for that inner sense of well-being? Are you anxious? Are you fearful? Do you ever become powerfully aware of how little you actually control in your life? Are you able to stare difficulty in the face and actually have peace inside? Are you able to be in the middle of the unexpected and rest? Or, maybe you're living through anxious days and sleepless nights?

Here's what you have got to know. You will just never completely, totally figure your life out. You'll never be able to control all the things that you would like to control. Your life will always be, in some way, a little bit out of your control, but you don't need to panic. You don't need to give way to fear; you don't need to numb yourself with things that will hurt you, because there is One who loves you who is in control of the details of your life. You can rest because He knows exactly what He's doing, even when you don't.

Kate Crowley: "Replacing Fear with Faith," faith in the One who can conquer your greatest fear, a good reminder from Paul Tripp on Right Here, Right Now. And Paul will continue his series "Survival Skills for a Fallen World," next time. So, make plans to join in.

But you can find hope today. In his new book, Lost In The Middle, Paul Tripp reminds us how moments of heartache can also be the key that opens the door to moments of God's grace. That's Lost In The Middle, available at our website, paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

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Tomorrow, Paul takes us to the book of Romans for a gentle lesson on our limitations and God's power. That's from his series: "Survival Skills for a Fallen World."

Now, for Paul Tripp and all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, I'm Kate Crowley, reminding you that, in Jesus Christ, there really is help, right here, right now.