Reflection for October 21, 2014

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God."(Psalm 42:11)

Since my life seems to be one of rolling hills, meaning peaks and valleys, but never to high or to low, I know when I'm in a valley period.  I can tell by my outlook and by my level of anxiousness and worry.  Or as the psalmist put it, cast down and disquieted.

When I'm in those places it is hard for me to see upward. I feel like life is just piling on.  When I get tired of being in that place, I start to ask the question, what is really going on?  Why are you feeling cast down?  There may be good reasons.  Something isn't working the way I thought.  Perhaps I've been rejected in some way.  I'm sure all of us can name what puts us in that place.

Same thing with being disquieted.  When our own personal fears and worries get topped off with all the craziness in the world outside of ourselves, being disquieted almost seems reasonable.

One of the places that I turn to first when I've grown weary from being cast down and disquieted is to God.  Those conversations, you could call it prayer, which allow me the space to process what is going on, and to be able to see more clearly the way out.

The beauty of that journey out that it begins with that first ray of hope. For me knowing that God is still there.  That the promise that praise rather than lament can and will be the mode of operation for me.

Because I claim that God, I can receive the help.  Not so much in a passive way that insists that God fix everything, but in that encouragement to get up and get moving again.  That I am not alone.  And that by looking up, questioning what is going on and by accepting the help offered, all can be well again.

Blessings,
Ed