I woke up this morning in Detroit. A city known for its many overwhelming problems. Corruption. Graft. Crumbling infrastructure. Bankruptcies. Racial strife. So much wrong and I found myself immediately praying for this city. But even as I began to pray, I just had this sense of helplessness. Hopelessness. So much is wrong. How in the world can it ever be set right?
Detroit's not the only city with problems. I got my USA Today under my hotel room door and the front page continues to detail the unfolding horror of what happened in Orlando. It recounts the political gridlock of our national leaders as they seek to craft a response. So much tragedy. So much grief. So much pain. So many victims. So many lives changed forever. So much fear. I felt overwhelmed again by the flood of needs that are out there. It felt like I was drowning.
Then I opened God's Word to Psalm 29 and I read that the Lord sits enthroned above the flood. Above the tragedies. Above the pain and suffering. Above the political corruption and strife. Above the fear. I read that the Lord sits enthroned as king forever and now I have a choice to make. Will I walk by faith or by sight? Will I pray by faith or by sight?
This choice is not easy. For anyone. I've been walking with Jesus for almost 25 years now as faithfully as I can and yet it still is so hard. All that is human in me. All that is earthly in me. All that is rational within me says that tackling these problems is impossible. Hopelessness and despair take root and their call is hard to resist. The enemy uses them to quench my prayers before they even begin. But faith also is calling. She raises her voice and I have learned to tune into what she is saying. Eyes wide open to the world's problems and the impossible challenge of it all, I must choose to believe. To trust that God is indeed sovereign. That God is indeed at work. That my King will not let me or us or this world down. And even though I cannot see the whole picture, I trust He can and He knows what He is doing.
And so to my knees I return. To pray. In faith. In trust. Lifting all the strife and pain and suffering and evil of this world before Him, knowing He is good and gracious and merciful and just and holy and fiercely loyal in His love for us. I pray knowing these things about my King and relinquish the desperate needs of our world and my life into His faithful hands.