On a Bible-teaching cruise in the Caribbean, I was listening to the customary first-day safety briefing. The precautions were vital in case the ship should have to be 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. The 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’s 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 to 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 do well to listen more closely to our Lord. The trial may be nothing more than a reminder that our trust is to be in God, not in people. We can trust Him in those times when the alarms start to sound.  — Bill Crowder