March 19, 2022 (Lent Week 2)

 

O tarry thou the Lord’s leisure; be strong, and let thy heart take courage, and wait upon the Lord. Psalm 27:16 (BCP)

 

When I graduated from high school, my parents gave me a beautiful leather bound Bible. I was about to leave for a university across the country and it was an exciting and scary time. My Dad placed an inscription in the front and the verse he chose was from one of today’s readings, Psalm 27. It’s a beautiful Psalm filled with a whole spectrum of human emotion. David moves from confidence, through prayer for reassurance, then concludes with trust.

 

Author Madeleine L’Engle once wrote, “It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.” She was writing about confidence in this particular reflection. When I look back to the time of my high school graduation, I was filled with confidence; ready to take on the world. Three years later, a significant prop was pulled from under me when my Dad suddenly and unexpectedly died. It was a time when I was in need of a great deal of reassurance. I know that my Dad, the greatest example of faithfulness in my life, would have told me that the place to find that reassurance would be within the pages of my graduation gift.

 

This Lent, I encourage you, whether you are at a point in your life where you feel confident, or in need of reassurance, or have had the rug pulled out from you in one way or another, to turn to the Lord, our light and our salvation, for whatever you need. Whether you feel Him present in this particular moment or not, He is there. Sometimes we must wait, and pray. Psalm 27 offers a reminder that through all the various seasons of our lives, we are never forsaken. Trust. Take heart! Verse 5 says, “He will lift me up upon a rock.” How blessed are we to always find a rock under our feet when all the sand slips away.

- Ceri Penner

 

 


Comments

  1. Unknown22 March 2022 at 14:14

    A beautiful reflection, Ceri. A wonderful rememberance of your earthly father and a great reminder of the solid foundation we have in our heavenly father.

    ReplyDelete

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