March 28
Day 14 (I think): The days are all blurring together.
Saturdays are becoming a new challenge. It's usually our "Sabbath Day" here at Casa Rydman. I'm used to getting up, drinking a lot of coffee, and turning on whatever English soccer game is on, before moving on to American sports. None of that now. Sports junkies like me are struggling.
I wonder if the families with young kids are running out of ideas for shapes of pancakes.
I realized I was with only two people in person this week (who are not named Deb), Joel and Paul with whom I both shared walks. We extroverts are beginning to feel like we're deep in a dungeon in chains.
We've all been on a lot of phone calls, and Zoom meetings. We've all seen our "screen time" skyrocket. (That app annoys me.) Deb and I are getting burned out watching endless travel food shows on Prime.
I'm now fatigued with checking my watch multiple times a day to see if I got my 10,000 steps.
All of us are tired.
And maybe our forced incarceration is pushing some hidden things to the forefront, certainly in our city, perhaps in our church and even in our homes.
Those who battle depression are now at war. Perhaps strained marriages are now teetering toward crisis.
And the thing that is maybe the most discouraging? Not yet seeing the end in sight. And what will that end in sight end up being?
I read this morning in 2 Samuel 13-15, the sad story of David having to collect his household and flee from his own son. Reading this as a father, I cannot even begin to imagine the heartache.
Several Psalms are attributed to this disheartening time period in David's life. Psalm 13 might be one of those. And this Psalm may put into words what some of us are feeling.
"How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him.' lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me."
Not to exegete this entire psalm with you, but do look again at the final paragraph. What David is saying here is more than significant.
None of what he writes is based on his present circumstances, not even a little bit. Instead, he is making a future statement, a future that is as good as done.
How can he say what he says? Because of how the LORD has evidenced His steadfast love in the past, and how David has rejoiced in the salvation the LORD has made possible in the past. And how David looks forward to singing to the LORD, because by that time David will have seen again how the LORD deals bountifully with him, and us. David's past with God informs his future.
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Maybe on a (lightly) snowy Saturday, we can find strength in rehearsing what we are assured of, the convictions we have in things we do not yet see.
Somehow, our LORD is dealing bountifully with us.
Even when we're out of fuel. Even with no end in sight (yet.)
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau