There are times in life when it seems as if the most sensible thing I can do is to run screaming into the wilderness and keep running until a bear catches and eviscerates me. No- wait. Let me try again. There are times in life when it seems like the most sensible thing to do is to run screaming off a cliff into the ocean. Hold on. What if there are sharks below, and the fall hasn’t killed me? What if the impact breaks both arms so I can’t swim, and I drown slowly? This train of thought is taking me nowhere I want to go. Today’s been hard, but not that hard.
Today has been another “your life has changed forever, and you must change accordingly” kind of days. And, I must confess, I was overwhelmed: overwhelmed by the administrative stuff I still have to do; overwhelmed by the foreign language of financial investing; overwhelmed by the puny stone I have in my hand to fight the giant ahead of me. Ignorant, unskilled, and terribly, terribly alone. (And that’s where the bear and the cliff came in).
But I am not alone, and I never will be. During the drudgery of the day, when I made myself and my troubles the center of the universe, my soul suffered, and my spirit was oppressed. When I forgot to be thankful, hope flew away.
I think Habakkuk says it well:
“Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will exult in the God of my salvation.
The Lord is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.”
I think I will skip the bear and the cliff. All that I am, and especially all I am not, is in good hands after all.
