Bible

What is your final authority in life?

I mean when you're concerned, when you're really up against it, when you're forced to face reality, upon what do you lean?

Before you answer too quickly, think about it for a few moments.  When it comes to establishing a standard for morality, what's your ruler?  When you need an ethical compass to find your way out of an ethical jungle, where's north?  When you're on a stormy, churning sea of emotions, which lighthouse shows you where to find the shore?

Let me get even more specific.  While getting dressed one morning you notice a dark mole on your side, just above your beltline.  A few days later you observe that it is surrounded by red, sensitive flesh.  It's becoming increasingly more sensitive to touch.  You're disturbed about it.  You finally talk yourself into seeing a physician.  The surgeon probes and pushes, asks some pertinent questions, takes a few X rays, and finally says to you with a frown, "I don't like the way this looks.  And I don't like the way it feels.  I'll have to remove it - we'll do a biopsy."  You churn inside while he talks.  After the procedure he pays a visit to your room and tells you that his report isn't good.  In fact, he quietly informs you, "It is melanoma."  The worst kind of cancer.  How do you handle that?  To whom or to what do you turn?  You need something solid to lean on.  What is it?

Here's another:  It's between one and two o'clock early one morning when your phone rings.  It's a police officer.  He tries to be tactful, but it's obvious that someone you love very much has been in an automobile accident - a terrible head-on collision.  The victim - your loved one - suffered a tragic death.  He tells you he has the unenviable and unfortunate responsibility of asking you to come and identify the body.  What do you do in the hours that follow?  How do you handle your grief?  What gives you the courage to accept the truth....and go on?

Here's another:  You've worked very, very hard in your own business.  Your diligence has been marked by integrity, loyalty, sacrifice.  You've given up a lot of personal desires and comforts so that the business might grow.  You've plowed what little bit of profit you've made right back into the operation.  And you've never once compromised your principles.  But during the last few hours you've discovered that your product, which has taken the best years of your life to perfect, will soon be obsolete, thanks to a recent technological breakthrough.  In fact, it appears that within the next few months you may lose everything.  The awful reality of financial bankruptcy suddenly looms like a massive shadow.  Where do you turn?  How do you stay on your feet?

Just one more:  You've been married a little over twenty-five years.  You and your partner have reared three now-adult children.  One will soon finish college, and the other two are gone, both happily married.  You're thinking that the future will soon reward you with relief and relaxation.  You have been faithful to your mate.  You've worked hard and you've given yourself to this marriage.  Out the blue one evening your partner sits down beside you and begins by saying, "I ...can't keep something from you any longer.  There's someone else in my life.  In fact, I don't want to be in this home anymore.  I...I...I don't love you.  I'm divorcing you."  What gives you the stability you need to continue your life?  How do you keep from becoming bitter?  Where do you turn to find hope amidst such rejection?