How do I find a space in my heart for the wonder of Easter to continue, for the miracle to keep unfolding, for the power of the Resurrection to transform my life? These seem to be weighty, heavy, theological questions, but I am in need of weight and power and some kind of glory to inform the daily. Each time I read the papers, watch the news, indeed live my days in a broken world I feel fragile and somehow unable to meet life's demand for courage and fearlessness. I'd like to hide in an upper room if I could find one.
Yesterday I found my car driving to the coast~ for light, warmth, and perspective. I could not have faced the candlelight vigil for the two little girls slain in our town if I had not first had my own vigil at the ocean.
"The Lord is a great God. the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker;
for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture,
the flock under His care."
Psalm 95:3-7
I must bow when my heart is breaking; I must kneel when I cannot understand. I know this is a tragedy localized to our little town in rural New Hampshire, and yet it encompasses the suffering of the world somehow. How can evil have so much sway and how do I respond?
"When I said, "My feet are slipping,"
Your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
Your consolation brought joy to my soul."
Psalm 94:19
~Hope is the anchor for our soul ~
"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us,
has entered on our behalf."
Hebrews 6:19, 20
In our deepest sorrow and confusion, in our lack of understanding, it is our soul that must lead: "Your consolation brought joy to my soul...we have this hope as an anchor for our soul." We cannot lean on our own understanding, but must see what God has to say. When calamity was upon the Israelites in Habakkuk's day , he said this:
"I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what He will say to me...
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea."
Habakkuk 2:1, 14
Have you stopped to look and see what God would say to you?
Medicine from Sacred Scriptures:
I keep asking the the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparable power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 1:17-20
