It’s incredibly frustrating when there’s both good news and bad on the same day. First there was the news that a federal judge had thrown out the oil exploration permits on Alaska’s North Slope, a victory for the environment and the Alaskan Natives such as the Iñupiat who had sued to stop the Conoco Phillips project.
Then there’s the story that for the first time ever rain rather than snow fell on the Summit Research Camp in Greenland. Well, there are times we get snow mixed with rain, but we’re not at the very top of Greenland. Makes one shudder and not with cold.
As we turn the pages of our newspapers – yes, there are those of us who still read a newspaper – or scroll down the stories on the internet, we’re never quite sure how to feel. The Psalmists had the same problem as well because in the very same Psalm one can read both fear and hope, despair and gratitude. The Psalms speak to all our emotions as well as the many ways we often experience our relationship to God.
Prayer for the Day
Leave me not in despair but send out your light, O God,
And let it lead me into deliverance from the evil round me;
Leave me not disconsolate, but send out your mercy, O God,
And let it lead me into the way of your steadfast love.
Break into our lives as the sunrise over the hills
And dissipate the storm clouds of hopelessness
In the name of the One who is our hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
When despair for the world grows in me ... I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry, from his poem "The Peace of Wild Things"
There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God ... But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then God must be dug out again.
Etty Hillesum, from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943
In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me,
For you are my rock and my fortress
Psalm 77: 1-3