Daily Devotions - Monday, February 18

Stormy Times?

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.
Lead me to a rock that is higher than I.”
--Psalm 61: 1, 2

Winter storms arrive and when they are over, we dig ourselves out and proceed with the rhythms of life. Daily we encounter those who are making their way through the storms of life. Some of them and, most likely some of us, could be at the point where we are pleading to the Creator—“listen to my prayer.”

There are moments when it feels like everything is shattered, like we’ve hit a dead end in the maze of life. One writer, Henri Nouwen, calls such moments “brokenness.” Receive his advice: “The first response to our brokenness is to face it squarely and befriend it. Usually, our first response to pain and suffering is to avoid it, to keep it at arm’s length, to ignore it or deny it.” Henri tells us to move close to our pain and welcome it rather than run from it.

The Psalm writer endorses this notion in the verses above. The way to the “rock that is higher” comes when we move close to our pain and invite the Holy to be with us on the journey into the gateway to joy. Tough times must be faced and they have their best resolution when we say, “hear my cry, O God.”

A prayer for today:
God who knows my pain and brokenness,
Lead me to a rock that is higher than I. Amen.

Ben Keckler
02.18.08