Lent
March 22, 2017
Scripture Reading: Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
comfort me. –Psalm 23:1-4
In tangles, that is how I sometimes feel, like the picture of a cat wound up in a long cord with no apparent beginning or ending. Change is a constant in our society. Our cellphones and laptops are out of date as we carry them across the exit of the store after buying them. The upgrading of one gadget renders another one obsolete. They do not play well with each other without a systems upgrade. Truth is not truth, facts do not matter, people do not matter. There is an edginess to all our interactions. I long for God to make the crooked path straight*.
God is not a magic wane waver. God works in and through us to create a world that makes sense. Even the splitting of the Red Sea making an escape route for the Hebrews fleeing Egypt was facilitated by Moses raising his staff*.
The wonderful, beautiful promise of the Twenty Third Psalm is that God is always leading us down the right path when and if we are willing to let God. Sometimes our Good Shepherd even leads us to a green meadow and still waters to untangle us from life’s challenges.
Prayer: Lord, clip the cords of the world that tie us in knots keeping us from fully following you. Keep a glimpse of your vision for our world in our minds eyes. Give us hope. Amen.
*See Isaiah 45:2