This entire psalm speaks of God’s unfailing love and care. Despite the Israelites constant
disobedience, God forgives, in all their sufferings He is beside them and He continues to set
them free because He loves them all. We can wonder if God gets discouraged by their
ungratefulness and perhaps look to where we are a lot like these Israelites. Lent, forty days to
prepare to be our better selves, places a new path before us. Can we trust in God’s love in
‘new’ ways?
The more experience we have with God, the stronger our faith. We can choose to trust
and believe God’s path is the better one, or we can continue to be unhappy. We feed our faith
with the promises of God, written all over the Bible, God’s love letter to us. As a caretaker, it is
important to sustain ourselves and there is no better place to renew, than reading the Word.
Chapter 11 of Hebrews speaks of the faith of the ancients and how God’s promises held
the generations in the Old Testament. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for, and
evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1.) Throughout sacred history faith in God has been
the key to the achievement of Bible heroes. Faith is confidence that God exists. Those who
know God as a power but also as a Person who loves, will truly seek Him.
Joan Chittister gives us food for thought, “God is present everywhere. God is the very
breath of our souls, the creative energy that gives life and carries us through all our days. God,
our hope, is the magnet that draws us, and the spirit that carries us from dark to light through
life. We come to rest in that assurance by realizing that whatever happens to us in life – when
things go wrong, when plans go awry, when our future seems dashed and the present seems
impossible – God’s will for us is our welfare and not our woe. Along the way, God sends guides
to light our path – spiritual mentors and models to lead us, disciplines to curb us so that, for
those who ‘endure and not grow weary’ growth from the trivial to the significant, may be
complete. Then, aware of our own limitations, honest in our sense of self, subdued in our
demands of the world and simple in our needs, we lose the demons of exaggerated
expectations. We are ready now to take life as it comes to us, unafraid and secure in the
presence of God to lead us through it.” These words speak to me, particularly the demons of
‘exaggerated expectations.’
We cannot do it all and rushing through life, we are missing the joy of the moment. God
didn’t intend for us to stress and strain through life. I believe we are here to nurture faith and
that means taking on what we need to do in time with the rhythm of our soul. Do you agree?