"I'm a State Trooper," said the man on the other end of the phone, "and I was wondering if you might have time to talk with me?" He continued, "Everything in my life is fouled up. My wife and I are getting a divorce. My insides are killing me. I've already been to a doctor and a counselor, and nothing seems to help. Do you have any idea what's wrong with me, or how I might get some relief?"
My first question was, "Are you living the way God wants you to live?" "No," was the immediate response. He has been honest with me, and I knew what could cure him. But before I could reply he said, "Everybody tells me that the secret is time. It's just going to take time. That's what the doctor said. That's what the counselor said. I'm going to be better in time. They may be right, but that doesn't help my stomach now. It's killing me. Do I have to live with it until time passes?"
He paused for a moment and I said, "I hate to disagree with your doctor and your counselor, but I don't really think time is going to help you." "Why not?" he said. "Because, regardless of how much time passes the problem is still there." "And you think my problem is that I'm not living right?" "That's what I think." "Well, I'm not living right, that's for sure." "Then let me give you a passage of scripture, and then you tell me what you think about it." "OK." "But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked" (Isa. 57:20-21). "That sounds like me." "I thought you would say that." I replied. "So you believe that as long as I don't live right I'm going to have these problems?" "That's exactly what I believe. But you can get rid of the basic problem." "Let the wicked forsake his way, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:7-8).
"I hope I can do that," he said. "Me too," I replied.