The Prospect of Losing Everything You Have

 By Al Baker - Posted at Forget None of His Benefits:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” -Habakkuk 3:17-19.

I often wonder how he withstood the hardship. Cotton Mather (1663-1728) entered Harvard at the age of twelve. He married Abigail Phillips in 1686 and they had nine children, six of whom died in infancy. Abigail died in 1702 and Cotton married a widow named Elizabeth Hubbard in 1703 who gave him six more children. A measles epidemic struck Boston in 1713 killing his second wife and three of their children. He married his last wife, Mrs. Lydia George, in 1715 who also was a widow. Lydia went insane and drove Cotton into financial ruin. Of his fifteen children, only six lived to adulthood and only two outlived him. He battled depression and anxiety. He was also a major contributor to the infamous Salam Witch Trials of 1693. It is not hard to see that while a godly man with amazing intellectual gifts, Cotton Mather lived a very difficult life. It is not too much to say that by the end of his life he had lost almost everything from an earthly perspective. How did he cope?

Let’s say you are a farmer and have enjoyed many years of prosperity but also a few lean years. You have always known that though you must prepare the soil and plant the seed at the proper time, you are still dependent upon God to bring the rains at the right time. You have known the basic principle that if you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly, but if you sow bountifully you will reap bountifully. In most years you have been able to borrow the money you need at the beginning of the growing cycle, trusting that when harvest time rolled around you would be able to enjoy a nice profit and pay off your debts.

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