If you partake in the One Word for the New Year challenge, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Based on Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen’s 2012 book, you forgo long lists of resolutions and choose or pray for a word to focus on for the next twelve months.

He let me down. Hard. He let Camille down. He let her sons down. He let our church down. He let Amy’s husband and four children down. We hoped in God and prayed big things and God. Said. No.

God wired us to grieve. In fact, he ministers to us through the grieving process. While the act of crying perplexed Darwin, many scientists today believe the body cleanses itself of toxic stress chemicals through weeping.

The last few days have left me feeling like someone knocked the wind out of me. Afghanistan. Haiti. Wildfires. New strains of Covid.

What do you do when bad news rushes you from every direction?

Even one flogging would send any one of us to trauma therapy for the rest of our days, yet Paul endured it over and over again. Note especially this phrase: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.”

Growing up, my friends and I had a name for people who always seemed to draw the short end of the stick: “No-luck Chuck.” You know the person. If something bad is going to happen, you can bet it’s going to happen to them. When it comes to dining out, one of my sisters was the “No-luck Chuck.” Without fail, something went wrong with her meal, and it had to be sent back.

I love that they are turning to Scripture. In fact, I wrote and taught a Bible study ten years ago called From Worrier to Warrior: Conquering Your Thoughts Once and For All (FWTW).

I don’t, however, recommend it.

Here’s why.