Waiting for the Lord through the Destroying Storms

I am not a particularly patient person, though it is a virtue I respect and to which I aspire. In my years of pastoral ministry I repeatedly observed that Christlikeness does not grow in individuals or congregations instantly. As Eugene Peterson has observed, “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Plenty of public impatience is evident in these days of waiting as the restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic are gradually relaxed. We want to worship together. We want to picnic at the beach together. We want restaurants and hair salons fully opened. We want to shed our masks. I remember the way C. S. Lewis cast this in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: “always winter without Christmas.” When Aslan began to be on the move, Father Christmas came and the thaw began, but no fixed date was established and considerable struggle and suffering remained.

In my Psalm prayers this morning I resonated with these lines, which brought together both the nurturing of patience and hope. Yes, prayers addressed to God, but as I listened I believe God spoke to me.

Psalm 27:13

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Seeing the goodness of the Lord is not returning to a comfortable status quo. The goodness of the Lord is love in action in the midst of the messiness of actual living with real people. This week I observed two neighbors caring for the yard of another neighbor who is a recent widow. I don’t know what arrangements, if any, were made between them. I am a bit reticent to write this lest they be embarrassed by reading it on line. Nevertheless, for me, this was the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 57:1

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by.

People understandably ask how a good and loving God could permit disasters such as the coronavirus pandemic. Taking a cue from Jesus in Luke 13:1-5, even unjust disasters are not specifically judgments for sin but do call us all to healthy repentance. Or in John 9:1-3, individual suffering is not due to sin but if we watch, opportunities to see God’s works revealed. Deep mysteries are embedded in these passages beyond what I will attempt here (or expect I will ever fully probe), but taking my cue from the Psalm, to focus on God is not to explain life’s destroying storms but to seek merciful refuge in the shadow of God’s wings, no matter how long the storm takes to pass.

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Waiting for the Lord is a frequent refrain in the Psalms. Whether in the midst of the destroying storm of the coronavirus pandemic or in the seemingly slow pace of progress in daily life, I need to be prompted to let my heart take courage and wait for the Lord.

Do Not Let the Slanderer Be Established in the Land

 I don’t think any special prophetic gift is required to predict we are headed into what may well be the most vicious and nasty political campaign of our lifetimes. My memory goes back to both Eisenhower/Stevenson campaigns. I won’t try to reach back farther into history. I know ugliness brews during political seasons, but I sense we are falling deeper and deeper into the muck.

I believe in good, vigorous political debate. I believe in holding politicians accountable for character issues such as competence and integrity, transparency and trustworthiness. I don’t really hold to any conventional political philosophy or approach but am concerned for justice and peace, compassion and mercy – especially for those who are weakest and most vulnerable.

I am feeling increasingly distressed at the name calling and rancorous distortions of political adversaries and their motives. Somehow the juxtaposition of covid-19 with this political season seems to have conjured up deep venomous malice. I am not going to identify the political persuasions that seem to me to be most culpable, for we much each examine our own houses before attacking those with whom we disagree. That is not at all to say that culpability is equally distributed. I see no place for permitting or even excusing any of this by any suggestion that “the other side is as bad or worse.” I will only say that yesterday I had several wonderful experiences of joy, and when I shut down my computer for the night the eruption of hate and anger on my Facebook feed threatened to steal my joy. I needed a definitive prayer discipline to reclaim the joy and have it wash out the pollution.

So there, I’ve got that out of my system. Then in my Psalm prayers this morning, I came to Psalm 140. This Psalm in total articulated my gut more eloquently and with greater grace than I was doing on my own. I recommend it to any who find the collapse of civility distressing. Verse 11 seemed so pointed, that as I pondered and prayed around it, I was prompted to write this piece. “Do not let the slanderer be established in the land.”