In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. – 1 Peter 1:6

Today's Scripture Reading (April 25, 2021): 1 Peter 1

In "Peer Gynt," nineteenth-century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote, "To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul. To write is to sit in judgment on oneself." I feel the judgment. But life is a struggle, and often, in daring to write anything, we both recognize the trolls or the trouble in life and at the same time acknowledge our own responsibility for the presence of some of those trials that we have allowed into our lives. We are fully capable of judging ourselves, although sometimes we are hesitant to publicly admit our role in the presence of the trials that we have to face. Still, the trolls come after us, making us doubt our decisions and causing no end of havoc in our lives.

Peter acknowledges the trolls of life. He has also seen them and felt their disturbance in his life. But he also recognizes that the trolls are a temporary presence in his life. Even in this life, there are moments when the trolls seem to be absent, and we are allowed to enjoy life's moments. But we also know that the trolls will return and attack us once again. And often, we have no defense against their approach.

The trolls are not all the same, nor do they do the same kind of damage in our lives. Paul says that we "suffer grief in all kinds of trials." The word Peter uses here literally means "many colored" and is used to describe a cloth tapestry that features many different threads of color. The trolls that attack our lives are "many-colored,' and they come at us with a different focus and from different directions in our lives. And as a result, it often seems that we get through an attack that comes from one direction, only to be faced with one that has come from a different direction. The tapestry of the trolls in our lives is very real.

We recognize the trolls. But Peter's point is that the trolls are only temporary. God is present with us through the trolls' attacks, but even more importantly, a time is coming when the trolls will lose their power over us. In a little while, we will be with the Father, and the trolls will be a distant memory with no capacity to inflict their pain on us anymore.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2