We Are Not Alone

 

It was an overcast, windy and dreary day as I found myself walking around the shore of Lake Texoma. I had not come prepared for the unseasonably cold October morning, and walking was a means to warming up after a long time sitting in the wind.

As I walked, I was struck by the fact that the feel of this place was more like the ocean than a lake. The wide open expanses of water, the waves whipped up by the wind and the silence of the place all worked together to transport me far from North Texas.

I sometimes find myself transported to other places and times in my mind. A memory takes me back to childhood, to simpler times when my parents were alive and life was, for me, carefree. A song can carry me to a moment in time and I can remember details down to the clothes I was wearing as a teenager out with my friends. It is, at times, astounding.

When times are hard, sometimes the words of scripture or the sound of a song can renew our strength by transporting us to a time when we felt especially close to God. Those memories may be big moments, such as experiences on mission trips or at retreats or camps. But they can also be simple moments in which a smile or a touch or an image filled us with love in such a way that we were changed in an instant. However they come about, such instances become milestones in our journey. We can go back to them to be reminded that we are not alone. We can go back and find strength.

The Psalmist writes, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him

For the help of His presence.

O my God, my soul is in despair within me;

Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.”

May we find strength for the challenges we face as we remember how real to us God’s presence has been in the past, and trust that it shall be again.

Peace.