The Heart's Cry: Psalm 88

Psalm 88

Sometimes you wait to do something and when you finally get around to it, it becomes more powerful than it would have been to you if you had done it when you were 'supposed' to, which begs the though, in times like that perhaps you weren't supposed to do it until you did it.

It's been a bad day, car troubles, child troubles, work troubles, and most of those troubles wouldn't have been nearly as troubling minus the original car trouble which totally dislodged the good day that I was experiencing, even after waking up at 4:15. It's been a bad day, and while I wouldn't go any where near suggesting that I am in the underworld, I can at least glimpse an understanding in this particular Psalm. Sometimes life wallops you out of the blue, sometimes that relationship is torn asunder, sometimes your plans go off the rails, sometimes there is cancer or a heart attack or a drunk driver and you populate a dark place that appears to be only growing darker. When you are in those times you may just wonder if God ever steps into that darkness, and even if you think God does in general you may yet believe that God may not in specific.

I hold to a different theological ground than this psalmist, I do not believe that God is responsible for everything that happens on this great big blue rock. I believe that when a friend or spouse betrays it is because a friend or spouse betrays, not that they were forced to by God's divine design. I believe that we are supposed to be partners in the creation of each moment, joining God is a great unfolding of time. So I don't hold God responsible for my car troubles, nor my dad's death, nor every heartbreak I have experienced in love. Instead I hold onto God to guide me through those experiences, and to bring me out the other side the better for having experienced them. I hold onto God and the belief that there will never be a darkness that is not without the hint of God's light, I may have to squint in order to see it, I may have to change my perspective to focus on it instead of me, but I believe with all my heart that it is always there.

+ How are you at finding God's light in the midst of darkness?