Consider

The pendulum swings.

The proverb says it something like this: "it rains on the just and the unjust"

In other words, life happens.

I am in one of those negative mood swings right now - feel like I have been there awhile.
The fact is that I know most of the negative emotions I am experiencing right now are just things I have built up in my own mind. Fears about falling short, self-pity, nobody likes me ...you know, stuff like that...

Anyway, I recognize it as life just happening.

But this week I happened on a verse that really helped me. I will include it here, just in case some of you may be going through your own "adversity" right now:

In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him. Ecclesiastes 7:14 NKJV

So when the pendulum is on the upswing - it's okay to be happy about that; when there is a downturn - consider.

Consider that God is in charge of both of them.

There is a line in a poem that we hear often recited during graduation ceremonies - Rudyard Kipling's "If" - it applies here:

"If you can meet with triumph and disaster - and treat those two impostors just the same..."

"triumph - disaster"

"prosperity - adversity"

Back and forth the pendulum swings.

Yet God is constant. He is sovereign over every swing of the pendulum