Cars were passing me as if I was a picket fence. I usually don’t
have a problem going the speed limit usually the reverse is true but today I was
preoccupied with texting. So first off, I want you to know that I was not physically
texting while driving but instead using my smart phone’s “hands off” option and
dictating to Siri. It is actually refreshing, liberating and excellent use of my
time to have both hands on the steering wheel, my eyes on the road and communicating.
When I got to bible study Donny was busy cleaning up the Youth
Center. You can imagine after 8 hours of use how much of a mess thirty-five
children can make.
“Hey pastor, what’s cooking?” asks Donny with a smile as he maneuvered
his motorized wheelchair to take a trash bag out to the dumpster in the parking
lot. You see Johnny is a volunteer and a soldier in Christ’s army. He is always
available to pray with people while hitching a ride on the bus or while holding
up a cardboard sign that says “God loves you!” Suddenly while watching Donny I
felt humbled and reflected on how often I start complaining about things.
So feeling a little guilty for the way in which I let myself
be overwhelmed with daily life I turned and asked Donny “ What keeps you going,
where does your strength come from and what is your favorite verse you like to
reflect on?”
“Well pastor, there is work to be done, Jesus Christ keeps
me going and I love to read Psalm 61” smiled
Donny.
Its dark after the study as Donny says goodbye and begins a
journey of seven miles on the highway in his wheel chair back home. I began to
think to myself “Man what a whiner I am”. So on my way home after completing a
couple more “hands free” texts via Siri, I push the button on my phone and say “Siri,
I love you” to which the female voice on my phone responds “You are the wind
under my wings”, by the way if you know my wife please don’t tell her I talk to
my phone that way.
I wonder if God looks
at us in the same way Siri answered me “You are the wind under my wings”? What
a word picture that is for God’s love where we fill the space under his wings;
that we were created for that very reason. He values and loves us so much that
He gave His One and Only Son for us; and yet while we were sinners, Jesus
Christ was born into this world to save it. It’s so good to know and better to
believe that God’s wings are a shelter from the storms in this life.
Because when Donny’s
heart is overwhelmed he goes to God’s word for comfort and through the shelter
of His wings, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father will lead him back
to the Rock that is higher than I. Even
in our own lives when problems arise and our enemies lie in wait, again God is
a strong tower that we can run into. The tent or tabernacle of His presence will
be incredibly sufficient to deliver us through the veil of death and usher us
into His presence. So tell me, what is there that we should fear?
King David, who wrote this psalm as his son
Absalom is forcefully taking over his kingdom throwing him out of Jerusalem
into the wilderness, must have felt abandoned and forsaken by God. So even
though David felt like he was at the ends of the earth God was always there
with him, listening to his prayers, preparing him to get back out there and
engage the enemy.
So I’m indebted to
Donny who by his trust in God has showed me not to fear when the battle begins
to heat up but to run to the Rock that is higher than I!
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