Readings for today: Psalms 65-67, 69-70
Yesterday, despair got to me. I woke up to a horrific video of a young African-American man being hunted and gunned down in broad daylight. I scrolled endlessly through the feeds of my friends of color lamenting, raging, demanding justice. As I prayed, I lifted up my own lament to God. Along with my rage and anger. Shaking my fists at the heavens. How long, O Lord? I don’t understand how such things can happen in 21st century America. I don’t understand why the two men who committed the crime aren’t in jail tonight. I don’t understand why - as Dr. Bryan Loritts and Dr. Eric Mason pointed out yesterday - why black men are murdered while eating Skittles in Florida. Sitting in a church in South Carolina. Sitting in a car with a girlfriend and young daughter in Minnesota. Eating ice cream at home in Dallas. Playing video games with a nephew in Fort Worth. Jogging in a neighborhood in Georgia. I don’t understand why there isn’t justice. I then broadened my appeal to God. I don’t understand why synagogues are attacked. I don’t understand why mosques are vandalized and burned. I don’t understand why LGBTQ nightclubs are targeted. I don’t understand. I don’t understand the greed that feeds off the backs of the poor. I don’t understand why power tends to corrupt. I don’t understand why we human beings always seem to have to find an enemy to fight. A group to organize against. I don’t understand why so many of our ideologies include hate. I was soon overwhelmed. It led me to the point of despair and my soul bore that weight throughout the day. I crashed into bed exhausted and could barely get up this morning.
Then I read the Psalms. I was reminded that David too felt overwhelmed at times. David too knew hardship and injustice and suffering. David too struggled to make sense of it all. And yet he praised God. He praised God for hearing our prayers. Praised God for creating the heavens and the earth. Praised God for each sunrise and sunset. He praised God for the goodness of the earth. The fruit of the vine. The abundance of blessings. He praised God for His mighty acts of deliverance. Cutting a path through the Red Sea. He praised God for His steadfast love and faithfulness. For His grace and tender mercies. He praised God for His righteousness and holiness and justice. He praised God for His forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption. David was not sticking his head in the sand. He was not given to sentimentalism or naive piety. David faced the horrors of this world with eyes wide open. And still he believed. Still he trusted. Still he found hope in God.
I don’t know where life finds you today. People read this blog from all over the state. All over the nation. All over the world. They come from different backgrounds and cultural traditions. Different races and socio-economic classes. Each of you has a story to share. Each of you has seen your share of suffering and pain. Each of you is wrestling in your own way with the crisis we are facing. And maybe, just maybe, you’ve found yourself like me feeling overwhelmed. Exhausted. Fearful. Anxious. Afraid. Weighed down by the weight of it all. Friends, each new sunrise is a gift. A reminder that God’s mercies are new every morning. He is steadfast. He is faithful. He is true. He is at work. He is coming. He will set all things right. He will make all things new. Let Him restore your hope today!
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Samuel 11-12, 1 Chronicles 20, Psalm 51