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Promises, Promises


My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.  (Psalm 119:50) 

          This is one I know something about. I may not know where I am going, but I am sure that He will see to it that I take the right “exit.” That is the only reason I can call this blog “Mission: Faithwalk.” Years ago, as I whined about not knowing what I am to do with my life, and about being afraid that I would miss an exit (I am notoriously afraid of not finding my way somewhere. I was crying for a GPS long before they existed) God asked me if I had missed the exit when He sent me to Penn State, and when He introduced me to Helen, and when He had brought me home, gotten me a job at the library, and then took me back to school. Each time, I had to answer, no, I hadn’t missed those exits. Then He asked what made me think He would let me miss the next exit. “Um, well, since You put it that way….”
          I didn’t miss the exit when I went to the church I’m going to now. I didn’t miss the exit when I got my last job, or when I quit my last job to take care of Dad and finally start to approach my dream of writing. 
          Recently, I’ve been struggling with both those things. My inner critic tells me that I’m fooling myself. Actually, my inner critic is telling me I’m fooling myself about everything – that I’m a miserable failure, etc. The truth of the matter is that I may be a miserable failure at everything I do all my life. That won’t matter as long as God keeps keeping me from missing exits. That may be the only promise that I ever manage to really grasp, but it is in that promise that I will find comfort, and life. 
          Heavenly, all-wise Father, You know how frail we are. You lovingly make many promises to each one of us. Help us, today, to find the promise we can cling to that comforts us and keeps our faith in You.

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