Skip to main content

Help

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

I may have shared what I’m about to share about this passage before, but it’s one of those things that goes around and comes around. I’m feeling a little under the weather – not enough to make me want to go find out what’s wrong, but enough to make me wish someone would come along and mother me. That doesn’t take much.

It seems as if I frequently wish that a knight in shining armor would come along to rescue me…

Or maybe it’s a master gardener coming along to fix my gardens…

Or a handyman to fix things that aren’t entirely broken, but aren’t exactly whole…

Or a mentor to guide my writing, or my diet, or my crafting, or….

Or a good friend who will actually listen to my tales of woe – those stories of minor mishaps that seem significant to me at the time – and not think me a weakling, and idiot, or a whiny little brat. [As an aside, I have thought in the past that the struggles one goes through are what makes one strong and/or beautiful. At the moment, I’m thinking in a different direction. Could it be in our pain that we find out meaning? We seem to judge people based on their suffering: this one is really suffering and deserves honor, but that one doesn’t face as big a challenge, so they don’t. Could that be something deeper, or truer, or righter than narcissism? Do we, in fact, find our truest, deepest, most real self in suffering? I don’t know. Back to the main idea.]

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this way, who wishes someone would come along, make things the way we want them to be, and (quite probably) to ride off into the sunset until the next time we want them. But what today’s passage tells us is that those places we look to for help aren’t where our help is found. I look to the hills – and nothing happens.

Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. That help may involve another person, or a change in attitude, or a miracle. There seem to be so many directions from which our help may come. If we put all our hope in any of them except God, we’re likely to be disappointed. It’s when we look for God in our needs that we are open to solutions that may not be what we were looking for, but that work better.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more