By Roger Campbell

Christian Columnist

Once, while painting our bathroom ceiling, I ended up in the tub.  Here’s how it happened: In order to reach every part of the ceiling, I had placed a ladder and a tall kitchen step-stool in the room so I could move from one to the other without coming down to get paint.

When stepping from the top of the kitchen stool to the ladder, my foot slipped and in a moment I was airborne, flying backward and crashing into the tub…well,  not quite crashing.

My wife, who had been painting lower areas, looked up to see her flying husband headed for the tub and momentarily feared I would be seriously hurt. Then, she says, when I reached the tub a strange thing happened.  Suddenly, everything seemed to go into slow motion and I was eased into the tub as if waiting hands had lowered me to safety.  I sustained no injuries…not even one bruise.

How can I explain this unusual deliverance?

To answer that question, I must take you to the bedside of a woman in a hospital where I once did volunteer work as a chaplain.

“Do you ever read the Bible?” I asked.

“I read the ninety-first Psalm every day of my life,” she replied.

This sufferer’s statement sent me to her favorite Bible text to discover why she visited it so often; why it had become such an important part of her life. There I found many faith-building promises, including: “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.  They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11-12).

When driving through the parking area of a large shopping plaza, I felt a hard bump from behind and upon stopping faced an apologetic driver of a pickup who, unable to stop in time, had crinkled the paint on my rear bumper. When exchanging insurance information, I discovered he had only a temporary driving permit because alcohol use had cost him his driver’s license. Now he resumed apologizing again and again.

Since I had publications with me intended to help people break free from alcohol, I knew this was no accident and told him to stop apologizing.  “If this hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have met,” I said, handing him this bondage breaking information.

He was surprised at my reaction, but I was simply drawing on a Biblical promise that has repeatedly enabled me to see a divine design in every experience: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

For many years, my work has taken me to people in times of crisis.  I have been there when tears were flowing, castles had tumbled, dreams were dashed and the lives of loved ones had ended; sometimes in old age and, even more tragically, in childhood or youth.  Often I have felt inadequate to cope with such needs, but I have had a resource that has always been up to the occasion: the Book for all seasons.

Troubled people have been lifted by “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1).

Grieving ones have had their tears dried by “He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Revelation 21:4).  Those imprisoned by fear, have found the many “Fear nots” in this Book adequate to overcome their anxieties.

No matter what you’re going through, there’s an answer for you.  You’ll find it in the Book for all seasons; the Bible.

Roger Campbell was an author, a broadcaster and columnist who was a pastor for 22 years.  An anthology containing over one hundred of his best columns, “Everywhere You Go There’s a Zacchaeus Up a Tree,” is now available at your local or online bookseller.