Thursday,
January 23, 2020
The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident. The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music. Psalm 27:1-6
In 2007 I took a little trip with
a group of Baptists, Methodists, and Assembly of God folks to Zimbabwe, Africa. Our mission was to teach End Times
theology to pastors in a seminary, build a building in 10 days for future
students, and (in our spare time) hold a Vacation Bible School for 150 kids in
110◦ heat. I learned a lot in
that 10-day adventure, particularly about dealing with adversity. On that trip I met people whose daily tasks
were dictated by whether there would be food somewhere in the coming week. When you live in American culture, adversity
is only having a 4G network. By the end
of the week I was feeling guilty about missing the comforts of my home when my
new friends were grateful just to have a roof over their school building to
shade them from the relentless midday sun.
We got one day being tourists; we got
to ride in an open, jeep-like vehicle for a mini-safari into the bush. Seeing wildlife in the wild
is spectacular! Our ride through the African
plains to an engedi of a watering-hole was surreal.
On that little excursion I learned
something very important to the life of following Jesus as a disciple when we
were threatened by a beast that could have squashed our huge jeep wagon and the
dozen occupants without even breaking a sweat.
The elephant blocked our pathway
through the brush as we were headed towards the oasis/watering hole…not quite a
lake really, more like a mudhole. But
that elephant considered it his mudhole, and he stood firmly unmovable, ready
to defend his home and herd. We hadn’t
seen him until we only 20 feet away. Suddenly
being nose to trunk with a 10-foot tall, ten-ton behemoth with an attitude, our
guide stopped the vehicle and said in a low, steady voice: be very quiet and still[2]. I had no problem with that; my legs wouldn’t
have moved if you beat me with a baseball bat!
After several looks at us with
eyes that resembled something I’ve seen on a tv show about zombies and devils,
the mountain of grey with a tail at both ends snorted and lumbered off, leaving
a dozen American sets of eyes frozen open in disbelief at how fragile our lives
were…and how calmly our African host remained when borderline rage was staring
us down, and fear had imprisoned his passengers.
That was the first time I’d connected
the dots with King David’s Psalm, and how, if attacked (or even just threatened),
he would remain confident. Perhaps this
confidence grew from years of being protected in the wilderness from bears and
lions as he protected the sheep he was tending.
David understood the power of his God to keep him, no matter the
circumstances.
There is a difference between presenting
a confident image for others to see, as opposed to having
a non-anxious spirit because you’ve entrusted your life, past, present, and
future, to the God nobody sees. David
could rest his spirit in the presence of the Lord, because that presence was always
there.
For
You Today
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Go to VIDEO
[1]
Title Image: Russell Brownworth (original
photograph) Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The
New Living Translation©
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