Some weeks we feel the full weight of this tired old world, and all the brokenness around us sinks in bone-deep, like a chill you just can’t shake. Some weeks you keep trying and failing, and it seems that for as far as you’ve come, you still have so much yet to learn. Some weeks are just like that, and on Sunday morning the words sound like a modern-day psalm, the chorus of these human hearts crying out to God:
“All this pain–
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way;
I wonder if my life could really change
at all.
All this earth–
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground,
at all?” **
Weeks like this, the words inside your head can begin to reflect the sin-disease around us: that no one hears you, that your life is going nowhere, that there’s no use in trying to do better, that your bridges are burned and there is no way back from where you are, that you’ll never find the belonging you are looking for. Our Enemy is called The Accuser of The Brethren, but he has taught us his songs quite well, and we can be our own enemies, singing his lies in the dark without much help from him at all.
King Solomon the Wise knew how easy it is to lose your way in this world, if you take your eyes off the Wisdom that makes your path straight; he wrote down a guidebook for his sons: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) Complete trust in God is how to find your way in this world, never mind the way things look, or what we think makes sense; submitting to the rule of the Creator is the first duty and privilege of us created ones, and there we find wisdom. So we pour out our hearts to God on Sunday mornings, offering up the questions that matter most… to the One who matters most… the way King David did thousands of years ago.
The Wise King taught his sons in plain terms: “Get wisdom.Though it cost all you have, get understanding….fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:7, 25-27) So we turn to God’s Word every week, read it through, focus on His nature and His plan revealed there, and learn from Him. It’s not just a good habit or something we are told to do. It is what we hang onto with both hands as we walk through this world. If God’s wisdom takes up residence in our hearts and thoughts we will have a compass for finding our way; we will find strength to resist the Accuser’s words; and we will keep singing our psalm to God:
“All around,
Hope is springing up from this old ground;
Out of chaos life is being found in You…
You make beautiful things out of the dust;
You make beautiful things.
You make beautiful things out of us…”
(**Beautiful Things, Gungor)
“When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant…Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:21-26)