The Bungee Cord  1-15-18

Hello,

     What a difference a day makes in Western Pennsylvania.  Last Friday I was walking around outside in a t-shirt in 60 degree temperature, and then on Saturday I was out shoveling snow, all bundled up, the air plunging to 9 below.  Not alone, were we in Pennsylvania, because I believe that this rollercoaster ride in temperature made its way across the Midwest to the East coast.

     For me, the abrupt change in apparel need is a good reminder that life can likewise take us to unexpected balmy heights and then send us likewise unexpectedly to frigid depths in the blink of an eye.  Life is…not just might be…at times a wild ride, a ride that often creates a difficulty in seeing God’s presence, at least a difficulty for me.

     Some years ago I wrote a song (yes, another song….having tortured you with a couple of videos, this week, I’ll just pass along the lyrics) on the Psalm 139:7-12.

“Sittin’ on a mountain top, just taking in the air.

Everything looks great up here, ain’t got a care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in all this glare.

But even when I climb the clouds….my God you’re there.

God you’re there…God you’re there.

Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”

I find it personally true that when life is as good as it gets, the goodness of life is a glow that captures my vision.  I can find myself basking in the wonder of the joy and beauty that sometimes are like mountain peaks, and even better yet are like high mesas.  Sometimes the spotlight of pride and accomplishment beams into my eyes, and it is easy to get lost in myself.  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even when I climb the clouds, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

“Blinded in a lightless cave, fears everywhere.

Signs say don’t even look, don’t love or care.

It’s hard to see you Lord, in sorrow’s snare.

But even in the valleys, Lord….my God you’re there.

God you’re there….God you’re there.

Even in the valleys, Lord…my God you’re there.” 

I don’t know who said it, but someone named these miserable days…weeks…years…as “the dark night of the soul”.  To me, that is a very accurate name for those times, having found myself flushed, like water in a toilet bowl into them.  Sometimes it has been my hands that have initiated the flush….other times, I have simply gotten caught up in a flush not of my making.  Either way, it is terrible, and when it happens it is really easy to wallow in a pity party…a party that I have discovered no one else wants to come to (and I don’t blame them).  But even then, says the Psalmist, God does not abandon me.  “Even in the valleys, Lord, my God you’re there.”  Thank you, God.

     As the January weather reminds us of the herky-jerky, clicking, hurling, plunging ride that life is…not might be… but is, God says to us in Psalm 139, “I am with you.”

“Oh…oh…what love.

Oh…oh…what love.

Whether high or whether low…..

My God you’re there.”

Thank you, God.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139)