[Darris McNeely] Has the government shut down, shut you down? As I speak in America, the American government has been shut down for nearly a month. Several hundred thousand people have been furloughed government workers without a paycheck. And it's been an ongoing drama here in America and an unfortunate situation but a part of our other governmental matters at this time. 

But it's made me think about the fact that when the government shuts down that's the best thing in the world but it teaches a lesson perhaps about something else larger for every one of us and that is to not get shut down. So not let life shut us down even when things happen that are beyond our control, workers that are furloughed on the U.S. government that's beyond their control.

Sometimes it hits us in private employment as well, sometimes other things happen come into our life. And it reverses, it discourages, it depresses, it puts us off in another direction, it can shut us down. We can prepare for the inevitabilities of problems and difficulties challenges in life and then sometimes, as they say, it comes pretty quickly and we may not be prepared or in some cases, nothing might prepare us for what will hit us and we have to avoid being shut down.

As I speak, we're in the midst of winter, a lot of snows been very cold gray days. And even that seasonal depression they call it can impact people, you, me can shut down emotionally and just become lethargic if we let it. There's a scripture that I think all of us should remember number of scriptural principles probably on matter like this, but it's in Psalm 23, the well-known shepherd Psalm. And in verse 4, it says, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

We have to keep that in mind. No matter what happens, no matter what life might throw at us. I used to give a talk to people in some of the lectures on the circuit that I was on at the time called "When life throws you a curve." Life throws us curveballs at times and as any baseball hitter knows, you got to know when and how and learn how to hit the curve if you're going to succeed.

Life throws us curveballs, it can shut us down, we have to learn how to get back up. Keep God in the picture, go to God, be close to his word. It's gonna keep us from being shut down.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.