This must be my earliest SNL ever written. I made it in my mind, before putting it to paper, at 6:03am Monday morning. Monday is the day after Sunday. Sunday is preaching day. Part of the message was twofold - a) Trouble must come John 16: 33; b) It’s how you deal with it. In my message I said trouble must come, via animals or people. It will come. You can’t stop it. It’s all planned Is 46: 11. But what must be discovered, is how you handle the problem. History: I am a foreigner; "langyaw". As such, chickens and roosters belong in the country side. They are not permitted in residential areas. That is Australia. I now reside, in the Philippines. So, (again) I get little sleep as a worker of the boss, puts their rooster, on the other side of the wall of the place where I sleep at night. And 2am, until 6am I did not sleep. Now, the person, the worker, was told, by the owner on a previous occasion “remove the chicken (rooster) to the other side of the house”. They did. But somehow, people are hard headed. You tell them many times, and it doesn’t get through. The rooster is back. Living message- yesterday. Trouble comes via an animal or a person. 16 hours after my message, trouble came to me via a rooster. I go outside. It’s next to the wall. I have options how to deal with this rooster; a) pour boiling water over it, to get silence after a bit of a final squeal or b) ask the owner, to tell the worker (again) to kindly remove it. Now, the Word of God says Eph 4: 26 do not let the sun go down in your anger. When things are not as you want/expect them, then we get angry. The meaning of “do not let the sun go down in your anger” means, deal with the issue, causing you distress, quickly. In my case, “do not let the sun come up in your anger”. Am I angry? You better believe it. Do I have a problem? Yes. How will I deal with it? Well I text many times, 2.00am to 6.00am for someone to go and talk to the owner, by 8am. Not earlier, as I do not want to disturb their sleep, even though they (not controlling the worker) made me lose my sleep Mth 7: 12 - I want a good sleep - so I let them be undisturbed, even as I am disturbed. This is how we Christians live - we do all (as much as we can) solving our problem’s God’s way. Yes, there is a limit that we all have in patience. But as far as possible, we must extend our patience to those who are slow to grasp simple things like - move the rooster, forever, away from my sleeping place. It does not mean - move it for one night. Have you heard of “road rage”? Well, chicken rage, would end up with my imprisonment, as its cool to go after foreigners. And I would have only 1 or 2 supporters (in the chicken issue). But it is a testament to the fact; been here 23 years and am still an outsider. Life. Troubles will come. Solve them quickly, solve them the right way.
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