The Wheel Keeps Turning

Greetings Pilgrims!

Be generous with me and I’ll live a full life; not for a minute will I take my eyes off your road.

Open my eyes so I can see what you show me of your miracle-wonders.

I’m a stranger in these parts; give me clear directions. -Psalm 119:17-19

This section of this Psalm was really speaking to me last week, during vacation bible school and while preparing for the youth trip. Different unexpected snags, some smaller, some larger kept coming up, complications with different families, issues with rides, food, volunteer schedules, finding chaperones, one hoop after another. During my teenage fits of overwhelm, my father always told me “Just to do one hoop at a time,” that there was only ever one hoop to do at a time really. That’s been a calming thought that I have leaned on many many times since then. But sometimes when you’ve been working on the same obstacle for a while, and have asked for help from different sources, tried lots of different solutions, and not yet found one that works— it can get pretty dang frustrating and discouraging. 

Let’s just say that looking through some psalms this past week came from an authentic place of need. Also, Psalm 119 is looooong. As a relative lay person when it comes to biblical study, this psalm has the feel to me of a mantra, with a similar message being repeated over and over again in different ways. God, I can’t see the way, I am trying to listen, I am trying to be humble, I don’t know what to do, I know I can trust you, please show me what to do! When one is tangled in your own thoughts, trying and trying to solve something, it can be hard to disentangle. A psalm like this provides a path, an empathetic mirroring or alternative neuropathway guiding you to a more helpful perspective. In Ronald Quillo’s Psalms: Prayers Of Many Moods, one tool he offers at the end of each psalm deep dive is an interpretation of an oppressive thought/image that many people may struggle with, with a counterpart edifying thought/image that the psalm offers as a balm for the painful ones. For Psalm 119 he offers this:

Oppressive thought: “God’s directives are a burden.” (I might add— “Too many obstacles are being put before me.”)

Oppressive image: Snares

Edifying thought: “I delight in the Lord’s decrees.” (I might phrase it- “With God’s help I will find a way forward.)

Edifying image: A lighted path

My prayer for all of you (and myself) is for us to hold that image of a lit path in our hearts, to trust in it, move towards it a step at a time, and to accept the form that path takes as it appears.

-love and prayers,

Felix