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Daniel (3) and I went to a little Zoo in Michigan City. It was so much fun. Oh, to see the world through the eyes of a child. He had never been to a zoo before that.
I had the honor of officiating a funeral for an African American brother, Henry Wallace (1940-2019).
Probably, my highlight this last month was going with a group from our church to camp in Indiana. For decades every year, the church has an informal camping trip to a county campground in Indiana. On Saturday, we enjoyed the annual hike in Turkey Run State Park. God's creation was impressive and rainy.

PSALM 89:46-51
How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, with which your enemies mock, O LORD, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

Have you suffered greatly? Have you ever wondered what God was thinking? Have you ever moaned in your mind why you keep struggling with the same things or questioned why isn't marriage and parenting easier? Or thought, why didn't God heal cancer? Perhaps the loss of a loved one rattled you. Have you called out to God asking, why?

The Psalms are personal and public prayers. They give voice to a real ancient tribulation, but they also speak to our present-day soul. The Psalms invite us to join the writer and engage with God, to express our deeper and darker thoughts in conversation with the Almighty as well as our glad ones.

Like Job, who lost everything he valued, saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and nake shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21), Psalm 89 ends with a statement of faith and hope: "Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen."

How? How does the Psalmist worship in hardship? How do we hope in loss? I don't think there is a simple solution. Job didn't always praise God. Later in the book, he accuses God. The Psalmist ends with a blessing, but he wrote these verses above. The Bible describes pathways to a heart of praise but not magic. God's Word challenges us to seek Him while we can. We can seek the LORD through journaling, praying, silence, solitude, and song. How? I think being honest is a good place to start. God isn't surprised by our questions or thoughts in those difficult seasons. He knows all things, even what is inside us. As the seasons of life come and go, it is good to continue to talk to God.

May God help you see Him and His comfort when the seasons change.

Dr. Jennifer Myhre, the author of The Rwendigo Tales, wrote this.

“This book reads with the immediacy and richness of a film. The seven phrases Jesus gasps out on the cross serve as touch-points for Nash to explore layered flashbacks to Old Testament rituals, Hebrew prophecies, and the Gospel stories. But the real beauty of Nash’s method is this: he personalizes each phrase right down into the nitty gritty of the reader’s present life. While this book is short enough to read in a single sitting as I did, is it full enough to provide seven weekly mediative chapters leading up to Easter, which is how I intend to read it next!”

Speaking
10/27 Preaching - Acts 20:1-38
11/1 Youth Retreat - Jonah - Learning to Study Our Bibles
11/3 Preaching - Acts 21:1-40
11/8-9 Crafting a Rule of Life for Leaders Retreat

Prayer Request:

Pray for grace and wisdom as I teach the youth of our church on the Fall Retreat and Preach.
Pray for strength from and rest in the Holy Spirit.

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