Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me

I am writing this less than a week after the presidential election - whichever way you voted, I believe everyone agrees that they were surprised by the outcome. On November 11, Veterans Day, as well as my grandson, Joe’s 5th birthday, my sister sent me a paraphrase of Psalm 37:7-11:

It read “I am your hiding place, I will protect you from trouble and surround you with songs of deliverance . . . I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go . . . I will counsel you and watch over you.  Rejoice in me . . . Your Heavenly Father

I thought of this verse this morning and looked it up in the Message - It read this way.

Quiet down before God,

    be prayerful before him.

Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,

    who elbow their way to the top.

Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,

    cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.

Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;

    God-investors will soon own the store. 

Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;

    you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!

Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,

    relishing a huge bonanza.

Psalm 37:7-11The Message (MSG)

As you can see, she is a much nicer person than me.  God speaks to me in harsh reality, telling me point blank to bridle my anger and trash my wrath - in other words cool your jets, it only makes things worse.

We are all dealing with something - while my sister and I talked last Friday about our daily struggles, the verse that came to our minds was from a song made popular on the TV show Hee Haw years ago: 

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

If I were truthful, and I want to be, my first reaction to any unpleasant circumstance is similar to this old song from Hee Haw.  As a Christ follower, I have as my goal to continue 'a long obedience in the same direction' (great book title from Eugene Peterson who is also the editor of the Message)  

However, my trek is most often 3 steps forward, 2 back.  I am making progress but not as quickly as I had hoped.  So today, I am continuing that long obedience - will you join me? I am praying to not grow weary in well doing - Ephesians 6 says it this way:

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. 

At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. 

Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, 

let us work for the benefit of all, 

starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

Ephesians 6:9-10 The Message (MSG)