Every night a cyber war is waged in our offices. Last night was no exception. Last night 241 Chinese hackers tried to climb over our server firewalls and one of them made it, shutting down our blog connections.

It’s the surprises that upset us. We expected functionality and peace and… SURPRISE!  Conflict comes in its place.  And it's that way for all of us. Maybe you expected a time of plenty, but surprise! You lose your job and you find yourself scrounging for a living instead.

That’s why, if we can prepare ourselves for the worst, it’s not so bad. That’s why when Jesus says, “You will have trouble,” (John 16:33) it’s a gift. It takes the edge off the surprise.  We get a chance to set our expectations, to prepare ourselves for the worst.

“Trouble” could be any number of things.  It could mean resistance, pain, or just stuff going wrong.  If you’re on a team that’s focused on a goal, trouble could come in the form of disunity.  Perhaps teammates disagree about where the team should go or how to get there. 

Jesus gives us a list of troubling things that will befall us as we advance his kingdom. We will be...

• Handed over to local councils
• Flogged
• Arrested
• Betrayed
• Death
• Hated by all men
• Persecuted*

But paradoxically, his motive is to encourage us. Jesus is telling us a story. He's saying, "We have an objective. It will meet resistance, but in the end, we win."

As plot lines go, it's a good one. His purpose is to give us the big picture. He concludes by saying, "Take heart, I have overcome the world." It's good advice.

If we didn’t face a sworn enemy who was committed to seeing people suffer, it would be different. But every bit of progress toward freedom or happiness is a setback for him. When his kingdom suffers a setback, he can be counted on to resist and cause trouble.

Many of us are in some kind of trouble. If that's where you find yourself today, consider that it may in fact be a good thing.

*Matt. 10: 17-23