Some seasons pad in like kittens, entering so quietly, so gently, you don’t notice the change until it’s well underway. Some seasons enter like a souped-up muscle car careening into town.

Before, you lived on a merry-go-round – predictable and calm, familiar and routine.

Now, you barrel who-knows-where on a runaway roller coaster.

What had seemed steady and certain may flail wildly. What had seemed immovable may sway violently. People you thought trustworthy may fail you spectacularly. Whole families – or even whole nations – may heave. Some days, you may feel like heaving, too.

In turbulent times, you may have trouble sleeping. You may live with a knot in your stomach. Your heart may move permanently to your throat.

Wisdom for turbulent times

Years ago, a new season careened into my life, announcing itself as turbulent from the start.

Smile at the future?!

A few days into that volatile season, I was reading about the Proverbs 31 woman – and came to a screeching halt at these words:

She smiles at the future. (v. 25 NAS)

“Yeah, but she had it all together,” I scoffed. “She obviously had everything under control.”

Did she though? In turbulent times, does anyone have everything under control?

Then I discovered that the Hebrew word translated smiles literally means to laugh.

She laughs without fear of the future. (NLT)
She can laugh at the days to come.

I felt as if I were standing mid-street, with a souped-up muscle car careening toward me – only to hear a voice cry out: “Smile! Better yet, laugh.”

How ridiculous. Irresponsible. Smacking of denial. Inviting disaster.

And yet, I was intrigued. For I knew:

God never calls us into naïveté and denial. Indeed, he calls us out of both. And neither characterized the woman described in Proverbs 31:10-31. No, she saw clearly and acted decisively. She took seriously what needed to be taken seriously.

Be sober, be vigilant!

Many scriptures call us to do the same. Here are two:

1 Thessalonians 5:6. Let’s not sleepwalk through life (MSG). Watch and keep your minds awake to what is happening (NLV). Stay alert and be sober. (CJB)

1 Peter 5:8. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (NKJV)

The Greek word often translated “sober” in both these verses means “not intoxicated; free from illusion; having clear judgment and being self-controlled.”

Soberness keeps us grounded, in the face of groundless fears that the father of lies tries to stoke. But also, soberness recognizes real danger, and its true source, and helps us know wise ways to respond.

Denial and naïveté stand, laughing, as danger approaches head-on.

• Naïveté keeps us happily unaware that we’re looking at life through rose-colored glasses, designed to block out unpleasant truth.
• Denial commands us to ignore what we don’t want to see, and to trust in what we want to be true.

Tragically, both naïveté and denial can keep us blinded, yet convinced that we see. Both can masquerade as faith. And either can lure us, smiling, into a pit.

Ah, but a counterfeit always mimics something of great value. I did not want to miss the treasure, trying to avoid the con.

Sober and smiling

The woman described in Proverbs 31 had found that treasure. She didn’t shun the sobering truth. But also, she didn’t let fear rule her. She could look ahead, and smile.

I longed to do the same. Even in hard times, especially in hard times, I wanted to experience:

• the laughter born of faith in him who is faithful and true;
• the joy of those who smile because they see.

Questions in the chaos

And so, through a decade of intense personal turmoil, I asked the Lord questions, and searched and waited and watched. All along the way, even when I was unaware he was doing it, God answered.

Now, he has taken me back to some things I wrote during those years when smiling at the future seemed impossible, but the Lord began to teach me it could be done. Now, in a turbulent season nationally and internationally, I’m seeking words to express what he continues to bring to light.

From the start, one question stood out:

Might turbulent times be key times to learn the laughter born of faith?

From the start, I heard in my spirit: Yes!

“But. But …” my soul would often retort.

God didn’t ignore my concerns, yet he didn’t answer all of them right away. Instead, he taught me patience and trust. In time, he began to show me what I had been learning all along.

Meanwhile, I kept pondering another question:

In tumult, isn’t it more important to “be sober” than to smile?

Truth is: It’s not a “more than, less than” issue. Nor is it “either, or.” Both are vital.

Watch and pray

In the best of times and the worst of times, God calls us to be sober and alert:

• Knowing what intoxicates us – and learning to live free from it – we see, think and act with clarity.
• Staying fully awake in spirit, we learn to discern between God’s workings, human plans and evil’s schemes. We learn to respond wisely and well.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus faced the sobering truth as to what the next 24 hours held. He went off by himself to agonize, grieve deeply and pray earnestly. Also, he kept coming back to his frightened and exhausted disciples, to find them asleep.

Ultimately, he asked them:

Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mark 14:37-38)

Be of good cheer

Also vital? Well-placed trust, good hope, courage – and delight in the God who gives them. Jesus asked the crowds he taught:

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matt. 6:27)

He told his disciples:

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NKJV)

Weep and laugh

Even in the most chaotic of seasons, there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Eccl. 3:1, 4).

Faith does not require us to be perennially perky. Nor does facing and processing trauma require us to be unceasingly serious or sad.

Jesus demonstrated as much. Early in his three-year ministry, when things were going well for him, he blessed those who mourn. Always, he was serious about his purpose and clear-minded in carrying it out. Foreseeing the trauma of his arrest, trial and death, he himself wept and mourned.

Yet also, Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21).

Facing the cross, he spoke of his joy.

• His desire? “That my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.”
• His prayer? That all who know him will “share completely in my joy” (John 15:11; 17:13 CEB).

And then: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” (Heb. 12:2)

The Message paraphrase says:

Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way.

How can I possibly smile at the future now?

The very first question I asked God in that volatile season years ago still keeps coming up. “How can I possibly smile now?”

Time and again, the risen Lord Jesus has shown me, “I have made the way.” The indwelling Spirit has assured me, “I’m guiding you in that way and giving you grace to take it.” The Word of God has taught me what the Spirit has revealed.

As I learn to take God at his word – and to stay sober and vigilant in the midst of life’s turbulence – I realize: Yes! Even now, I can experience the laughter born of faith.

How seeing leads to smiling

Humanly speaking, we can’t see farther than this minute, or this world, or whatever in it frightens or discourages us most. In Christ, we have the capacity to see what we otherwise could not. Some of what our Lord wants to show us is sobering. Some is delightful and astonishingly good.

The more we try to pick and choose what we will or won’t see, the more we stifle our capacity to walk in truth and faith, hope and love. Ah, but the more we say yes to seeing whatever the Lord wants to reveal, the more he strengthens our faith, gives us good hope and increases our capacity for joy.

The other three posts in this series explore other ways that seeing with the eyes of our heart helps us to smile even in turbulent times.

• Fighting fear of loss with fear of the Lord – In times that threaten hardship, abandonment and loss, we can fight fear of the future with the fear of the Lord.
• Living in two worlds, seeing the unseen – Jesus shows us, and the Spirit teaches us, how to live in this world and also see into, and live from, an unseen world that is far greater.
• Look ahead with hope! Find more life than ever – Jesus has good in store for us both in time and in eternity. Even when hope seems lost, in Christ we find resurrection and life.

A prayer for turbulent times

Beloved of the Father, redeemed of the Lamb, intimate of the Spirit:

I pray that your heart will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called – his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else – not only in this world but also in the world to come. (Eph. 1:18-21 NLT)

Even when life is hard, especially when life is hard, may you stay clearheaded and wide awake. And in those turbulent times when you think you cannot even smile, may you learn the laughter born of faith.

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The original version of this series was published Feb-Apr 2014, and was adapted from the Key Truths e-column, “Smiling Just Thinking About It,” 2008, 2014. I revised and reposted the series early in 2021.

Still learning in 2026, I’ve published this post and retired its predecessor, which was titled, “Smiling into the unknown when times are tough.”

Image by Ray Bilcliff at Pexels.com

Other insights for tough times

• Feast of Joy, in times when life is hard
• When your world has changed – panic vs love
• It is God who has wronged me

• Good grief? The blessing of mourning
• When waiting is writhing and silence groans
• Riding life’s roller coaster, waiting for hope