The first casualties of upheaval can be love, kindness, and patience. But crisis is also a moment when love for God & one another can spring up. For 150 days, starting on 17th March 2020, I will write 300 words based on one of the 150 psalms in the bible. How can I find and give love in the midst of coronavirus?
What are the conversations in your head like? Are they a jumble, are they full of imagination, are they confused? Do you debate with yourself? I do this a lot – I think of a problem, I puzzle over it, I worry, I talk to God, I think of solutions, I get discouraged, I find hope, I ask questions. But I don’t start with thoughts fully formed, or all the answers, or even a sense of what God is saying. Check out our psalm today – it sounds just like one of these inside-my-head conversations:
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’ and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.6 I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.
Do you see how David (yes, him again) starts a conversation with himself and with God? First, he starts with a sense of ‘where are you God?’ (verses 1-2). Then he starts to pray and ask for God’s help (verses 3-4). Finally, he arrives at a declaration of his trust in God (verses 5-6).
This sounds like us. We begin with thoughts of despair, especially in the current crisis. Then we cry out to God in prayer – help! And then, if we allow Him and ourselves – we get to a place of trust in who God is and in what He’s doing.
Turn your anxious thoughts into a prayer. And then allow God to answer and bring you to a place of peace, trust, and praise.
May God bless you today. Love, Matt