For October 8, 2018
The transition between adolescence and young adulthood can be especially difficult given its issues and challenges, exacerbated by the absence of coping skills that generally accompany age and experience.
It has been rightly said “Hindsight is 20/20,” just as Proverbs 20:29 (NLT) reads: “The gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.”
The critical choices we make (i.e., college, career, where to live, friends, acquaintances and significant others, etc.) during 
these important years, take on a different perspective through the lenses of age and experience.
Moreover, in light of the menacing influences of peer pressure, skewed societal norms, parental/family expectations, conventional wisdom, political correctness, we can have a far greater appreciation of the young man, Joseph who discovered his fiancée was pregnant–with a child was not his!
Conventional wisdom would have said: “Walk away,” “Get an abortion,” “Confront the other man,” or at the very least, “Publicly expose her for infidelity.”
However while pondering his situation; the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream saying: “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21 NLT)
Imagine the faith Joseph expressed as he chose to believe God instead of what he saw, felt, and experienced. I am glad he chose to help raise a child, whose death at Calvary would ultimately redeem a sinful humanity by paying the price for our sins and restoring our fellowship with God.
The Bible describes faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen in Hebrews 11:1. Paul makes this observation in 2 Corinthians 4:16—18 (NIV)
“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
We can have the benefit of Christ’s Spirit dwelling within us so we can demonstrate a genuine faith in God that transcends our time, space and circumstances. The “cold, hard facts” that make up our normal, everyday lives can be modified so that we embrace His transcendent, eternal reality.
Let us forever fix our eyes, hearts and minds on Jesus Christ, who is our hope and peace. Because like airplanes on a runway before takeoff, we will never achieve flight without The Pilot at the controls.