I stretch myself out. I sleep.
Then I’m up again—rested, tall and steady,
Fearless before the enemy mobs
Coming at me from all sides.
Dear Friends,
Please forgive the pause in my posts these last two weeks while I have been on vacation. I’m near the end of it now, and I wanted to share an experience that reminded me of the psalmist’s words above.
This is David, on the run from enemies, most likely King Saul. I’d like to dwell for a moment on the verse where David wakes up rested, ready to meet the day, and unafraid of what it might hold.
I have tried all my life to map a course for my future. But then events happened, and I don’t have the future I tried so hard to create. I have been thinking on my vacation about concentrating instead on the daily-ness of life, the only time I can really shape.
In his psalm, David speaks to this daily-ness aspect of facing fear. Sometimes it’s impossible to look into the future because it really is fearful, and there’s no controlling it. All we can do is trust God one day at a time to face it and trust God will help us map a course. We count it as God’s faithfulness when we can sleep, when we can wake feeling rested, ready to face just one more day.
Traveling long distances on my own brings a certain amount of fear. I’ve been lucky on this trip to be in the company of friends. Last week, I left one friend in England to meet some other friends in France. The morning of my flight to Bordeaux, I woke early to catch a shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport, and in the lobby was an elderly woman with two large suitcases and a very big purse. She smiled at me, and I soon realized she was waiting for the bus as well. She was on her way to visit her daughter and grandchildren for a month. When the bus arrived, there was no way she was going to be able to get on board with all that luggage by herself, soI helped her. At the airport, I helped her get her luggage off the bus and then went with her to airport assistance to find someone to check her bags and take her by wheelchair to her flight. Afterwards, she was exhausted and deeply grateful for the help.
I thought about the coincidence of being on the same bus, of being available to help her at exactly the moment she needed it.
Later that day, I arrived in France alone, speaking and reading only a tiny bit of the language. Despite good directions, I could not figure out which train to take into the city. I met two young British men who were also going into the city, and together we figured out the right train. But once on the train, I couldn’t get my phone to work, an essential tool if I had any hope of finding my accommodation deep in the warren of Bordeaux. A couple from Australia helped me figure out what was wrong with it and set me up with a new navigation app. I did not feel I was traveling alone. When I got off at my stop, the two Brits did too, and we walked together for a little while joking about our matching suitcases, and then we parted ways with a laugh. A short while later, I used my phone app to find the bed and breakfast where I would eventually meet my friends. I was so relieved to have found it and arrived!
It’s my nature to want to know everything is going to be okay in the future, but we don’t get those kinds of guarantees. What we do have is a God that shows up daily to meet us where we are and to meet our needs sometimes at the very moment they arise. That’s what I think David meant when he said he sleeps, then he wakes rested. All we can count on is that God is present, God accompanies us as we meet the day ahead.
That’s what I’ve been trying to do on vacation, and it’s what I want to take home with me when I return—a sense that God’s daily-ness is enough to help me face my anxiety and fear just for today. And then I watch for the people God sends my way.