I asked the person in crisis to imagine a very long rope stretched across a very large stage. The rope represented their life. What they were going through now was only a few inches of the rope.

Over the years, I have counseled a lot of people in my role as minister and as businessman as well.

Some tragedies presented to me leave me rather weak and empty, like the parent with incurable cancer who is leaving a spouse and children.

I was able to give good counsel in those times, but I couldn’t change what was, in human terms, a helpless situation.

Most tragedies people brought to me were not as desperate.

I would tell them that it was time for them to humble themselves and seek the Lord (I Peter 5: 6, 7), and maybe I would give them some other things to do.

But I also wanted them to have perspective about what they were going through.

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