The Morning After

Dear LABC,
Many of us are having a tough time with the result of yesterday’s presidential election. In the face of that struggle, our Wednesday Morning Bible Study and Prayer group met this morning. Using a Lectio Divina process we read Psalm 46 several times. The Psalm begins – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”
After each reading we considered a question. The questions we considered were:

1. What jumped out at you as we read this Psalm?
2. What in the Psalm seems to be taken from today’s headlines?
3. What did you read/hear that you will keep with you today?
4. What is the really good news here?

(I encourage you to read the Psalm using the same process.)
Around the table were Doris Evans, Zondra Martin, Jeanne Robinson, Alean Saunders-Coffey, Jesse Lucas, Mary Karne, Ann Fields and me. I found faith, wisdom and encouragement in all their responses. Thus, let me at least share their responses to question four with you.

1. God is identified as the God of Jacob and Jacob’s character was not very good. He was a conniver but God still used him.
2. God is reliable when not much else is.
3. God helps us even when the headlines are shocking and the circumstances are deplorable.
4. God is ever present, not just present when things are going well.
5. God can bring good out of some pretty awful raw material.
6. We have lived though some very tough times and we still have a place to turn.
7. When things happen that we cannot control we can be still and turn to God.

Thank you to these good folks for ministering to me. I trust that their words minister to you as well.
Jim H.