When The Smoke Clears

Discovering A Better Life
P.O Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331
Phone/Fax: (08) 98 418 418
E-mail: abl-alb@omninet.net.au

When the Smoke Clears
Friend, things can look so bleak and dismal when you are in the middle of a crisis. A nation is tense. A family is feuding. A company is facing bankruptcy. The Stock Exchange is in a depressed state. The diagnosis is frightening. You name it, the list could go on and on. Unfortunately, some people give up too soon - with victory just over the horizon. While others give way to despair when God is calling them to hope. Such people forget that what looks like defeat to us is opportunity for the Almighty. Here’s an example for you. During this past summer many forests throughout Australia were ablaze. Almost every state and millions of hectares of rain-starved land were ravaged by fast-moving fires over a period of more than four months. At the time of my writing this article, fires are still raging in Victoria. The words used by premiers, environmentalists, and news reporters included “devastating,” “catastrophic,” and “horrendous.” Some experts said the land might never recover from one of the worst fire seasons ever experienced in this nation. However, already some of those burnt-out areas have shown amazing resilience. While there have been very real losses and although some of the most heavily burned timberland will take generations to heal fully, the consensus of the experts now is that what happened will generate unforeseen benefits. These benefits, by the way, are not making the headlines the destructive fires received. The fires have cleaned out huge amounts of dead and small-growth plants, recycling them as nutrients into the soil. Certain animal species now have more habitat area available to them. Within weeks of some of the fires having passed through, green sprouts were rising from charred stumps. And we can be sure that, come spring, there will be new life poking through blackened earth everywhere! No, the fires were not good things. Arsonists certainly didn’t do anyone a favour with their evil deeds. And the people who lost loved ones, or homes or businesses or pasture land on account of them can take scant comfort from what has happened since, or will eventually happen as the scorched earth transforms itself. But the point I want to make today is simply to say that grim situations often have blessed by-products we didn’t see while holding on for dear life through some ordeal. Friend, hope sees heaven through the thickest clouds. Because, when the smoke clears, it’s still there! And some of the things we had thought horrible or even lethal have accomplished what those awful fires did last summer. You see, in forests and in people, burned-over places allow new growth to occur. Perhaps you’d like some help in working through some grim situations you’re facing in your personal life. If so, I think I can help you by offering you a FREE booklet which is titled “WHERE TROUBLE CAN’T HURT YOU.” To obtain your copy, Email me or write to me at P.O Box 1540, Albany W.A 6331. Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418 Have a great day! -- Ron.

When the Smoke Clears

Friend, things can look so bleak and dismal when you are in the middle of a crisis. A nation is tense. A family is feuding. A company is facing bankruptcy. The Stock Exchange is in a depressed state. The diagnosis is frightening. You name it, the list could go on and on.

Unfortunately, some people give up too soon - with victory just over the horizon. While others give way to despair when God is calling them to hope. Such people forget that what looks like defeat to us is opportunity for the Almighty. Here’s an example for you.

During this past summer many forests throughout Australia were ablaze. Almost every state and millions of hectares of rain-starved land were ravaged by fast-moving fires over a period of more than four months. At the time of my writing this article, fires are still raging in Victoria. The words used by premiers, environmentalists, and news reporters included “devastating,” “catastrophic,” and “horrendous.” Some experts said the land might never recover from one of the worst fire seasons ever experienced in this nation.

However, already some of those burnt-out areas have shown amazing resilience. While there have been very real losses and although some of the most heavily burned timberland will take generations to heal fully, the consensus of the experts now is that what happened will generate unforeseen benefits. These benefits, by the way, are not making the headlines the destructive fires received.

The fires have cleaned out huge amounts of dead and small-growth plants, recycling them as nutrients into the soil. Certain animal species now have more habitat area available to them. Within weeks of some of the fires having passed through, green sprouts were rising from charred stumps. And we can be sure that, come spring, there will be new life poking through blackened earth everywhere!

No, the fires were not good things. Arsonists certainly didn’t do anyone a favour with their evil deeds. And the people who lost loved ones, or homes or businesses or pasture land on account of them can take scant comfort from what has happened since, or will eventually happen as the scorched earth transforms itself. But the point I want to make today is simply to say that grim situations often have blessed by-products we didn’t see while holding on for dear life through some ordeal.

Friend, hope sees heaven through the thickest clouds. Because, when the smoke clears, it’s still there! And some of the things we had thought horrible or even lethal have accomplished what those awful fires did last summer.

You see, in forests and in people, burned-over places allow new growth to occur.

Perhaps you’d like some help in working through some grim situations you’re facing in your personal life. If so, I think I can help you by offering you a FREE booklet which is titled “WHERE TROUBLE CAN’T HURT YOU.” To obtain your copy,

Email me
or write to me at
P.O Box 1540,
Albany W.A 6331.

Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418

Have a great day! -- Ron.