It may not be coincidence that 12 hours after I left a conference talking about handling anxiety in personal transformation that I read this passage and get to the end only to find "Banish anxieties from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body."
The human body is tremendous. It is capable of so much, yet it is so frail. Yet another seminary classmate has passed away, which makes 2 in one year. We tire of funerals, we tire of good-byes. We yearn for hellos and new beginnings. In all of the frailties of the human condition, we just want one thing that will stand, if only for a little while longer. We are tired of carrying around our burdens, the anxieties that penetrate the imaginary boundary between our spirit and our body. Anxieties sit in our hearts, dragging them down and breaking our dreams.
We have a God of broken dreams. We have a God who sits in the wilderness, a God who wears darkness as a coat, a God who is near to the broken-hearted and a God who is compassion with skin on. So God, hear our prayer. How long, O Lord? How long do we lay our family and friends in the ground? How long do we say good-bye, and when can we say hello again? Cast out the anxieties in our heart, let us grieve, give us the strength to say good-bye one more time. And when we do, let our eyes see light one more time. When the good-byes have escaped our lips, let us see the sun. Don't hide it from us, don't leave us alone in the wilderness. Give us glimpses of Promised Land, give us hope. Give us Jesus. Amen.
For you, Chuck, 1974-2010. And all who grieve today.
God is amazing how we can all read a passage and all see different messages that speaks to us individualy. Verse 5 caught my attention. So I was waiting for how the chapter caught yours. I looked in another one of my Bibles and found in 2000 I had underedlined the last verse also. We cannot 'understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.' But we can know He is in all. Sorry about the lost of another classmate.
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