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Yesterday I facilitated Solace, a new type of on-line support we are offering to you so that we can stay connected during this time of social distancing. Each week, I will be leading our on-line support meeting on Wednesdays at noon and Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. Please join us!
We talked about what it means to shelter in place and how our lives have been affected. One phenomenon that I found most interesting is how time disoriented many of us have become because we are out of our routines. A television station in Indianapolis posted this picture to help their viewers with their confusion.
Relax! Today is Monday and not Thursday. Has time confusion happened to you?
Amidst the chaos and confusion there is a clarity that our faith can provide. Psalm 46 brings the clarity of God being in our midst during times such as these.
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble...Psalm 46:1 A Bible scholar I read says that the root word for refuge here comes from the verb to flee or to take shelter. I can't think of a more appropriate verse for our call to shelter in place. The call with which the Psalmist beckons us in faith is to lessen our fear because we have been called to shelter in place with our God. As Psalm 46 proceeds there are scary moments; the earth gives way, the mountains fall into the heart of the sea with the waters roaring and foaming. How can you not experience fear? In this fear the psalmist offers comfort.
There is a river running through the city; a city where God has taken up residency! The psalmist states: "God is with her, she shall not fall; God will help her at break of day." The Bible scholar notes that the break of day literally means the turning of the face of morning to us; God's face turned to us in our struggles.
Have you noticed how much more you enjoy looking at faces in these days of sheltering in place? Perhaps in them you see the face of God reflected through the ones in who were made in his image.
Our next Solace is Wednesday at noon. Login information is posted on the JCPC Facebook page.
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