Scripture – Psalm 119:89-90: “The Lord exists forever; your word is firmly fixed in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.” (NRSV)
In a world that is full of change, where things we considered eternal fade away, we need something solid upon which we can rely. I sometimes feel like I am sailing in a stormy sea, buffeted by worries and stress. I feel there are several ways in which I can find God when I feel this way.
First, God is like an anchor. My faith holds me fast and prevents me from being moved away from my location by the storms and currents. This is vital when the forces around me feel destructive, but the drawback is that I cannot move forward.
Second, God is a like a star on the horizon. With this unchanging point before me, I can orient myself and sail on through life in the direction that leads to God. Such a star is less immediate that an anchor, but it allows me to find positive change in the world around me.
Finally, I think of God as being like the sun. Unlike the anchor in the boat or the star on the horizon, the sun appears to move. Sometimes it is east and sometimes it is west, and sometimes it is not present at all. Yet we know that it is not the sun that moves, but we who move around the sun.
When we look back at our lives, and the paths we have taken, it seems like our relationship with God may have changed. Sometimes, we may feel close to God and other times, we may feel like God is distant or absent, or seems irrelevant or unrealistic to our way of thinking. But God is always present and always the same: we are the ones that are changing. God still loves us without changing. God guides us even when we are not looking. And amid the worst of storms, God is still anchoring us and protecting us. While our perspectives and needs are always changing, we can always rely on God.
Prayer – Lord God, our rock and our redeemer, bring us constancy when the world moves to fast, momentum when the world is agonizingly still, and balance amidst the chaos of life. In all things, let us rest our hearts in you. Amen.
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