"I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever." Psalm 52:8
As I sit at my desk at work, our world is facing so many unknowns. The economy and the stock market are daily fluctuating and no one knows definitively when (or if) it will ever recover. The credit market is nearly frozen. Our country is on the verge of a pivotal presidential election that will define the next four to eight years of our nation. Our armed forces are in the middle of their 5th straight year of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, thanklessly protecting the freedom we enjoy every day. The church in America is seemingly endlessly arguing about doctrine, congregational beliefs and differences, homosexuals serving in leadership positions in the church, the role of the church in individuals lives and so much more. The job market seems to be shrinking on a daily basis, which worries me for the next wave of college graduates. Radical Islamic fascism is continuing to spread across sections of the Middle East and even, yes, in America. These individuals are fixated on destroying our way of life by whatever means necessary. Russia is again rearing it's angry head and continuing a downward spiral back to the former ways of the U.S.S.R. Teenagers are talking about and watching things that would have made our parents blush just twenty years today. Parent's busy work, social and volunteer schedules are cutting into their precious few years when their children are home and willing to learn from and listen to them. Children's disrespect for their parents in public and private is diminishing and devaluing the role of a parent's life in their child.
Some nights I lay in bed and worry about where our world is heading. I wonder if it's responsible to go for my dream job, when I have a good paying job right now. I wonder what my role in this ever changing world will actually be. I wonder about the safety of future generations. I wonder if I will ever get to backpack across Europe (fickle worry, I know, but still). I wonder if I will get to return to D.C. to work and live.
And yet in the midst of this, I hear a small voice whispering, "Look to Me. Seek Me. Trust Me. Follow Me." But that's crazy, right? To give up the worrying, the wondering, the sleepless nights, the endless plans and schemes to get what I want in life?
Yet again I hear the same voice whispering - okay fine, yelling - to me, "Who are you to question Me! Me! I am the God who brought your forefathers out of the desert and into the promised land. I am the God who has shepherded His people for generations. I am the God who sent you a Savior, my son, in physical form so that you could inherit eternal life. I am the God who laid the foundations of the earth before you were born. I am the God who saved Noah from a devastating flood so that mankind could continue through his line. I am the God who called you out of darkness and into light. I am your God and I will never leave you or forsake you."
And when I finally listen to this gentle voice, I have no choice but to, "Trust in God's unfailing love forever and ever." And tomorrow I am going to have to get up and choose the same thing. And the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that.
In the words of my dear friend Anthony:
"I choose now
To be humbled in Your presence
I choose now
To fall on my face
Cause one day
Every knee will bow but Jesus
I choose now."
So I choose now. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Not when the stock market rises again or my candidate wins the White House. Not when I get my dream job. Not when I get a pay raise to make life more convenient.
No. I choose now.
