'I have taken you by the hand and kept you' - January 13

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 22; Isa. 42:(1-9)10-17; Eph. 3:1-13; Mark 2:13-22 

Today’s Reflection

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. —Thomas Merton

We humans tend to be very fearful of uncertainty. We have a fear of the unknown and of the future. We feel uncomfortable and afraid when we cannot see around the bend in the road. But when I think of some of my favorite places to go hiking—whether at Red Mountain Park here in Birmingham, or on the Lake Beresford Trail back in my home of Central Florida, or at McKinney Roughs outside Austin—I recall how some of what makes those trails most appealing to me are the curves. Seeing a bend in the trail up ahead, you wonder what may be around it—what beauties of nature will I experience next? Perhaps, as at Lake Beresford, I'll encounter a magnolia tree whose massive, fragrant white blooms I can smell even before I see the tree towering around the bend. Perhaps I'll encounter a wild boar and her babies up in a stand of trees as I come around the next curve in the path, as I once did at McKinney Roughs. We don’t know what exactly we will encounter—be it beautiful or dangerous—around the next bend. But if choose to set out hiking on the trail, we accept that there will be hills and bends that we cannot see beyond—and we know that these grades and curves are what make the hike interesting and beautiful as well as risky.

When we consider today’s Old Testament passage from Isaiah 42, we read of a God who cares for each one of us today just as he cared for Isaiah and the people of Israel centuries ago: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (v. 1). God upholds or supports us, and not only but God also delights in us. Wait, did I read that right? God delights in us. Yes, we bring God delight, in God’s very soul. That’s strong language. God doesn’t just tolerate us, he chooses us, upholds us, and delights in us.

The God who made the heavens and the earth and all who dwell therein also wants to care for us, guide us, and guard us: “Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you” (v. 5-6a). Imagine walking along and God taking you by the hand and keeping you by their side. We don’t have to imagine it, that is what God promises to us in these words to us through the prophet Isaiah. God sent Jesus to walk with us, and be with us, as one of us. And God sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us from within and be among us, to intercede for us when we don’t know how, to whisper and nudge us and stir us toward what God would have us to do, where God would have us to go, and who God means for us to be and to become.

And when we feel as if we are unable to see where to place our next steps, this God who upholds us and delights in us, who has taken us by the hand and kept us by their side, is there to lead us on when the path seems unfamiliar or even hard to find: “I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known, I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them (v. 16).

So, take courage. Our God has given us his Spirit to abide in us and with us, so that we need not be paralyzed by either regret for the past or by fear for the future. We cannot see around the bend in the road. But at each bend we can choose to keep walking, knowing that God's love for us is sure, and believing that while we may not know what lies ahead, we will not walk there alone.

Becky+

Questions for Reflection

I wonder when you have felt someone took delight in being your presence or took real delight in some aspect of who you are. Reflect on how that carried over into the other relationships in your life and into your own sense of self. I wonder how you have taken delight in and upheld the people in your circle of care.

Daily Challenge

Allow yourself 10 minutes of stillness and quietness today to sit with the realization that God chooses you, upholds you, and delights in you; God takes you by the hand and keeps you at their side; God guides you, shines a light before you, and turns rough places into level ground. God has done this. God is doing this. God will do this. God loves you. Always.