land of the living

Snowflake is a word we’ve started to use for people who seem too fragile to handle real life. I jumped on that bandwagon along with everyone else, but I got off it pretty quick. That’s because sometimes I find life hard, and I complain about it. I’ve decide it’s not my place to judge what’s hard for other people; sometimes, judging from the advice I get, my big issues are no big deal to other people either.

Making ends meet can be hard. Raising kids can be hard, and so can wishing we could do more for our grandkids, or see more of our kids. Marriage is sometimes hard.

On top of all that, often what I see happening in the world worries me. Will my kids be OK if Social Security goes under? What is life going to be like for my grandkids in an always-connected social media world, where perfect strangers will say the most hateful things to them? Can we ever return to nuanced, respectful discussions of complex issues like immigration, education and the social safety net, or have we been permanently polarized by the most strident among us?

There are entire people groups who think the world would be better if they could eliminate the Unites States – they call us the Great Satan. There are entire groups of people who think the US would be better off if they could eliminate any Christian influence in public life. There are people who put everyone in categories of either us or them, with the intention of rooting for us and trying to keep them out or down or at least away from us.

Pretty discouraging, huh? But it doesn't have to be. This morning in Psalm 27 I read this, in verses 13 and 14: “I remain confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

David, who wrote this psalm, had a much harder life than I did. I’m not sure, but I think he wrote this before he was king; a lot of his early psalms were written in that period when he was exiled, fleeing from King Saul, living either with the enemy Philistines or in caves. Yet he was confident not just in his eternal security, but that God would be good to him while he was here on earth.

God is good, and he will bring me good things; I will indeed see his goodness in the land of the living. All of these things only worry me when I forget who I follow.

When I remember, I can do what David advises: be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.