One of Those Days

On days when things are going well; when the sun is shining and the temperatures are in the moderate range; when we make plans for the day’s schedule and the day pretty much goes according to it; when things are okay, on those days, we feel in control and satisfied and strong.

However, on days when the weather is threatening—maybe with tornado watches, or flood warnings, or blizzards; when the world or nation or family crises arise; when life does not go at all like the schedule, we face our vulnerability, our helplessness, our weakness.

I said all that to say today is the second kind. There are uprisings in the streets across the world. There are no apparent solutions to world-wide economic problems. Local news and emails tell of friends and acquaintances facing serious illnesses and of untimely deaths. Weather forecasters are calling for a huge winter storm to descend upon the Midwest with several inches of ice and/or many inches of snow.

In all these, humankind is indeed helpless, vulnerable, and weak. Oh, we can go to the grocery store for bread and milk and toilet paper and to the gas station to fill up our vehicles. We can seek to get prepared. But, we cannot control the weather or any of the other serious issues humankind faces.

I wonder how we appear to Heaven when we deceive ourselves and think we are in control. I wonder if we look like toddlers who demand to “do it myself” with a task far too difficult for them. As a parent, I would have preferred for my toddler to say “Help please? I need you!”

Is that a lesson for today as we face unknowns? Shouldn’t we reach out to our Heavenly Father and say “Help please; I need you!”

Psalm 91:15 tells “He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.”

♫ I need thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like thine
Can peace afford.
I need thee, O I need thee;
Every hour I need thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. ♫