“I look to the hills from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord.” (Psalm 121)
I remember my first crisis of faith. A very sweet, old lady in our congregation was very ill. She had been the “community grandma”. Everyone, especially children loved her and she loved children. After many, many years of waiting she and her husband were looking forward to their first grandchild. Her health turned quickly and the baby had not yet been born. Our pastor told us about her illness while on a youth retreat and asked us to pray for her. Which I diligently did. I prayed for her to see her first grandchild who was to be born in three weeks. She died two days later. I was a bit put out.
My prayer had been reasonable. I wasn’t asking for a miracle cure. We all were asking for her to see her long-awaited grandchild.
Over the years I’ve come to know reasonable request or not, prayers are often answered in ways I am not asking for or even expecting. Sometimes I wonder how God answered the Psalmist who cried “from where does my help come?”
We are given no response to the plea of first line of the Psalm. All which follows is complete trust in God – no matter what comes. The verses proclaim a confidence in God’s presence in every life situation. A confidence more to do with connection to God and less to do with a desired outcome. The storms of life are not solved by mystical Godly intervention. The storms of life are livable because in faith we are linked to God. I find the crisis are much more manageable when I pray less for a desired outcome and seek instead the confidence of God’s presence.
In Christ,
Rev. Wendy