Psalm 139:7-10 – Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (NIV)
In 1994, I had brain surgery to remove an arterial venial malformation (AVM) that doctors told me had probably been there since birth. The surgery caused me to have many of the symptoms of a massive stroke, including loss of memory. That loss was rather severe for a few days, but gradually went away. By the end of my first year after surgery, my memory was fairly normal.
The loss was dreadfully frightening. I knew that my memory had gone. I could think of things that I knew that I should know, but did not know. It was just frightening. Where was this going to stop?
I thought about my Christian life. I have not had heart surgery that would remove a part of my relationship to Jesus Christ, yet there are times when I just feel like I have lost that closeness that I long for, and want to know all day every day. I know He has not lost me! He even knows the number of hairs on my head. He knows every heartbeat. He has pulled me through two brain surgeries, and through a week of seizure-induced comas. These are just what I think of as the big ones. God must laugh at my value judgment.
The Psalmist reminds us that even though we may lose our grip on God in the middle of all of our hurried living, God never has and never will lose His grip on us. Crisis times come and go, but our God does not vary. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Prayer: Dear God, You're so good. Please give us added strength to walk in Your way, not in the way of the world, and also the strength to be a help to our struggling brothers and sisters. Keep us from fleeing Your presence in search of an easy path. Amen.
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