Calling Up Sarah

"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." -Psalm 40

I write to you now from the bottom of the pit. My pit's probably different than your pit and I might be in a different pit next month. If you can see the sunshine from where you are, hallelujah and soak it in... but then bring snacks and a flashlight candle over here.

I don't have a lot to say. I had to go back and read some of the things I've written lately, just to see if I was really that hopeful, to see if any of it made sense. Because sometimes it feels like nothing makes sense. Sometime it's hard to believe there is any kind of plan or purpose. Sometimes it feels like there is no hope.

My flesh and my heart fail. I've already forgotten that I'm supposed to be a cathedral and I think I'm a tomb. Humans are flawed, fickle, sinful creatures. Didn't the Hebrews wander around in the wilderness for 40 years before they made it to the promised land? Because they doubted God. Every step of the way, God provided them with what they needed, and yet they continued to doubt. I remember reading that story and thinking, "Why?! Why do they continue to make the same mistake over and over and over? They could have been there by now!"

Yep.

Eventually, I came to realize that, wait a minute... I do the same dumb stuff over and over too...

I don't really want to wander in the "desert" for 40 years. And even though I don't feel hopeful, I try to remember that there is hope. 

"In my distress, I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me."-Psalm 120:1

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." -2 Corinthians 1:8-9

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." -1 Corinthians 13:12

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." -Philippians 4:13

Even this.