Daily Verse: Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise – in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

 

At the end of each day, I try to give thanks to the Lord for allowing me to live another day unscathed…and I give particular attention to giving thanks for allowing my wife and children to return safely from the day’s activities. In fact, it is those mundane, nothing special, boring, regular routine days that I try to be most thankful for. Those days where things are relatively uneventful, we go through the routine, return home, and with the moon in the sky, lay our heads on the pillow having received hardly a scratch from the day’s activities. At times I inevitably think about all that COULD have happened during the day. I think about all the trouble that is in this world and at the blink of an eye, that trouble can be at my doorstep, or in my child’s classroom, or on the road my wife takes to work each day. The list of things that I could be afraid of and worry about each day could get quite extensive. That is why I so strongly gravitate to Psalms like the one above. When I come across the words above, the worry and grief seem to kind of melt away. For when we look at the “bigger picture” of our existence, there is literally nothing that can tear us from God’s grip…there is nothing that can get in the way of us walking into heaven one day, greeting the Savior, and finding perfect peace. Then there’s the argument that “mere mortals”, as mentioned above, can actually wreak some pretty nasty havoc in our lives and the lives of our loved ones. I agree…that’s the sad reality of this broken world…there is darkness in this world and that darkness likes to bring the storm at times. But that trouble is temporary and it’s not all there is to our existence…and through Christ, we don’t have to navigate that course alone. I pray that we may never have to experience something tragic…I pray that our families remain free of disease, free of harm, free of pain…that we get to grow old and cranky with our loved ones by our side…unscathed, unharmed, and at peace. But if life throws us a curve and we experience pain and suffering, I pray that we remember that it is temporary…and that whether we are atop the highest peak or buried in the lowest of lows, that we not lose faith in Christ, and hold tight to the fact that there is nothing that can tear us way from him. All glory to God!