On Level Ground - December 8

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39; Isa. 5:13-17, 24-25; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Luke 21:29-38

Today’s Reflection

Give judgment for me, O Lord, for I have lived with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and my mind. For your love is before my eyes; I have walked faithfully with you.  … As for me, I will live with integrity; redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me. My foot stands on level ground; in the full assembly I will bless the Lord. —Psalm 26: 1-3, 11-12

While in seminary in Austin, I had an excellent counselor who helped me work through many things, including discerning what exactly God was doing in calling me out of my safe, comfortable existence to be formed for whatever was still ahead of me. It all seemed very amorphous and uncertain, so it was very helpful to have a trusted person to listen and ask good questions as I struggled to find the path appointed for me.

Last fall, once I was in my first job post-seminary, a couple hours down the road from Austin, I needed to find someone in my new community to help me continue the work of discernment. I found a spiritual director, Heidi, who walked alongside me in a year that was difficult on many levels. I found comfort in these conversations with a person gifted in asking good questions, listening to me, and guiding me as I continued to discern what exactly God was doing through several years of disruption and disquietude.

One of the things I especially like about this spiritual director is that she sometimes has had a special word for me, something she feels should share with me, be it a picture or metaphor or a particular piece of scripture that I was meant to hear and carry around with me in my heart as I discerned. One of the scriptures that Heidi spoke over me last year is Psalm 26:12, “My foot stands on level ground; in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.” She wanted me to rest in that assurance that no matter what might happen, that I was standing on level ground—not shaky ground, but the level, solid, stable ground of God’s loving presence in my life.

The verse just before this very much resonated with me as well, so I wrote both verses down and posted them on a place by my office window where I often would gaze outside, look up, and pray for God to continue to guide me through that difficult time and space: “But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the Lord” (Psalm 26: 11-12, English Standard Version).

Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing. Doing the right thing can mean swimming against the tide of what it feels like others are doing or would have us to do. Doing the right thing can even mean doing what we ourselves would rather not do. Doing the right thing can also mean not doing something that we really want to do.

This year of 2020 has been full of moments of discernment, many moments of trying to figure out what is the right thing to do. And in 2020, many mundane daily life decisions we would never have considered as moments for discernment, now feel weightier. As we approach the end of 2020, with a surge in COVID cases, hospitalizations, and lives lost, we will face even more of these moments of discernment, both personally and corporately. As a church—only just recently reunited for in-person worship these past eight weeks—we have learned it is time for us to set aside in-person worship and formation in favor of the common good. As we hear the psalmist pray in Psalm 26, God calls us to live with integrity, to walk faithfully knowing that when we do so we are walking with God beside us.

In a similar spirit, Paul ends his letter to the Thessalonians with these words, which I hope will also be encouraging for us as we enter this next phase in our Coronatide spiritual journey together: “But test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this” (1 Thessalonians 5: 21-24).

—Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

When have you felt the reassurance that you were standing on God’s level ground?

What moments in your life’s journey have especially challenged you to walk in your integrity?

Daily Challenge

As we continue together through this challenging time, commit to praying daily for discernment and clarity for the leaders of our community and nation as well as for the leaders of this church, that together we will know what it means to walk in our integrity and that God will keep us all on level ground.