text: ​Agony is the struggle that precedes death. We so often think of this state as prolonged, gruesome and slow—a patient fighting to beat some dreaded disease. Yet, agony may also be camouflaged beneath a happy exterior. While appearance suggests that life is good, underneath a desperate struggle to find meaning takes place.
  Agony is the:
  headlong flight to reach the top only to wonder at the pinnacle what else is there?
  canard of naturalism as the passionate explanation for life mixed with an animus towards a Creator
  unsatisfied pursuit of new and better toys, homes, cars, computers, etc.
  proliferation of green paper that cannot buy joy
  reality of aging despite wonder drugs, plastic surgery and super vitamins
  fight for rights that result in guilt and endless rationalization
  song whose words cannot be understood but whose scream is loud and penetrating
  desperate desire to be loved yet repeated stiff-arming of the Lover
  scorn expressed for absolutes and pain experienced without their protection
  result of calling good "evil" and evil "good".
  We are surrounded by a society in agony. A young boy of six guns down his classmate and a thousand attend her funeral asking, "Where did we go wrong?" Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) dangerously pollutes our water nationwide as underground fuel tanks leak. No matter how fast we run, what we invent, how splendidly we live, sin and death still stalk, unimpressed by human effort.
  ​
  Agony! It doesn’t have to be so. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
  Meditation
  Revelation 9:5,6--They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.
  Inspiration
  Agony that has God behind it can be turned into triumph; but think of agony in which there is no God, neither in heaven above nor earth beneath, only the terror of an accusing conscience. No human sympathy can touch that desolation.—Oswald Chambers in Bringing Sons Into Glory
  ©2000 Daniel York ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause. If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box. Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.
  Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth. (Holman CSB)