Life Rattled
What do you do when something really rattles you, when your daily routine, when your mind, is confused and unsettled?
Together this Lent we are journeying with Jesus to the cross; then from the cross to the grave and ultimately from the grave to the sky… But even during the beauty which is Lent, our lives can get rattled. Ranging from annoyances to simple delays to the worst a person could contemplate, like the loss of a loved one or the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, disrupted, ruffled lives, threaten our journey, our peace even our identity and homeostasis. When we experience disruptions of any kind, we naturally, almost automatically, seek to recreate a consistency that was present before the unsettling occurred. Maybe we need to learn to embrace these disturbances and give them some space. Ugh. Character after character in both the Hebrew and Greek Testaments encountered God, and it wasn’t unheard of for Him to jazz-up their lives. What we do when the Lord of Hosts interrupts our lives speaks volumes to our willingness to be used, honed and shaped by our Creator.
“…I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done
[with me] and be amazed…”
The psalmist's attitude captured a point of view that I wish I could bottle, then sip as a tonic, each time I encounter life interrupted. So as tribulations are not likely to cease, I pray that God sees me as remade and that I am not hopeless in my remaking.