On a Bible teaching cruise in the Carribean, I was listening to the customary first day safety briefing. The precautions were vital in case the ship should have to evacuated . The instructions from the ship's personnel concluded with a simple but significant explanation . A specific combination of air-horn blasts, indicating a drill, would be distinctly different from those indicating a real emergency. This distinction was critical. A drill did not constitute a need to evacuate. If Passengers were to panic during the drill, it could result in chaos. When we don't understand the circumstances that surround us, it is easy to be shaken by life's alarms. Peter's generation experienced the same thing. His warning was simple: "Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is try you. (1 Peter 4:12) The trials and heartaches of life may sound like a call to evacuate_ to run away or to respond to life in ways that are disheartening and destructive. But we would...