Day of Praise

Tu, 03/25/14, "Day of Praise"

Psalm 94:18 - "When I thought, 'My foot slips,' your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up."

Has your mind ever drifted elsewhere?

My mind drifted last night. It was dark here at my house. I'd just gotten home from visiting one of our shut-ins who lives over an hour away. Because of the distance, it's hard for our visiting team to get to her more than once a month. I was trying to count how many times, in the two hours we were together, she said, "I miss everyone so much." I was thinking how hard it must be for her to be alone in life when she's unable to get out to see people and do things and almost everybody she knows lives so far away.

Then my mind drifted further to my mom with her being newly widowed after almost fifty-five years of marriage. And then it drifted even further to the many of you who read this in Illinois and Washington state and overseas and here in Birmingham, all of whom, for various reasons, live alone.

As nice as it may have been to be thinking of and now praying for so many of you, there's a way in which it wasn't smart. My mind was drifting to you while I was walking down my steep driveway that is covered in marble-sized Lagerstroemia seed pods from the pruning (and dragging the pruning to the street) that I did on Saturday. I was also wearing slick-bottomed dress shoes.

Uh-oh!

My mind was drifting; my feet were slipping; and my first view of stars (the ones in the sky) was becoming clear as my feet went up and my head went back. I knew in my gut that the second view of stars (the ones in my head) was imminent. I also knew, as all these things raced through my mind in a split second, that I was alone. (My girls at college and my son at the lake with a friend for Spring Break.)

And, ya know, it's funny. As all this was happening in a whirlwind, I didn't cringe about the imminent impact. Instead, my heart raced through all the ways that every human being is alone, like my oldest daughter in her commitment to be a missionary, yes, but even moreso to be a woman of God. And she's trying to be God's woman when she has a very imperfect dad, who oftentimes is too quick to speak and too slow to listen and therefore is not understanding and supportive. And the result is that she's alone. Yes, she has lots of amazing Christian friends, but like every human being, she needs a dad. She needs a godly dad. Not one who's going to cause her to slip. So, I cried out to God for her and for all who may be slipping while they're alone, "Lord, have mercy!"

And He did.

Somehow, as I was slipping in my slick shoes on my seed-pod-covered driveway while my mind was drifting to you, God had mercy and caught me and set me on my feet.

I can't explain the distribution of the miracles of God any better than you can. I'm just called to believe his promises and tell anybody who will listen of the great things he's done for me. And I'm telling you, I was slipping, and He caught me.

And He promises to catch you too.

"When I thought, 'My foot slips,' your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up." (Psalm 94:18)

Praise God!

Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson