A few weeks ago, the RCs were given the responsibility of coming up with a devotion for our weekly meeting with the RAs. Our meetings are late at night, and I was finishing with the flu that was going around, so I missed the meeting, but we were supposed to each pick a favorite verse of ours and talk about what it means to us.
Choosing just one verse was incredibly difficult. Matthew 5:16 was my Confirmation verse, and one that I sort of use as my own personal motto. Proverbs 3:27 is another one that I reflect on when my job requires me to resolve undesirable situations, but the one I chose to share (then didn't) is Psalm 119:105: "Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path." This verse has served as an important reminder for me of God's provision during many uncertain times in my life and, at a time of extreme economic uncertainty, I thought it might be helpful to share with you how this verse has comforted and reassured me.
I'm a literal thinker, so in second or third grade, when our pastor used the verse in his sermon with the literal example of a lamp at our feet, those mechanics produced an analogy that has hit home many times. Since people don't really walk around carrying lamps in the dark anymore, think of God's Word as a flashlight...
The summer after eighth grade, our Confirmation class went on a weekend retreat to Camp Luther in northern WI. Lots of other Confirmation classes were there that weekend, but our group from Beautiful Savior stayed in the Fort Village, which was slightly secluded from the rest of camp... including the flush toilets. Being adolescent girls, we weren't too keen on the idea of using an outhouse in the middle of the pitch black woods, so we would opt for the dark and treacherous hike back to the bath houses at the main camp. During these walks, a flashlight was highly essential.
As a 14 year old girl, my fear would urge me to shine the flashligh straight ahead. That would provide me a dimly lit preview of the twists and turns on the path ahead. However, it would also provide me with an easy way to sprain an ankle. While I might be able to see where the path was headed, I'd have a limited view of the path directly in front of my feet, where rocks and roots waited to trip me up. Although a bit more frightening, it was far wiser to shine the flashlight down, at the path right in front of me. I wasn't able to see as far in front of me, but I was able to see enough to safely reach the bath house.
Like the flashlight pointed down, it's not really God's style to show us everything at once. I imagine if He did, things would be too easy for us, and we might not remember to look to Him for guidance. Still, He never leaves us in total darkness. He always gives us what we need (not necessarily what we think we need) to safely put one foot in front of the other and take one step at a time down the path of life.
This can be unsettling for us sinful humans... especially in today's culture of immediate gratification. We want everything all at once and yesterday! That's when we exercise our trust in an all-knowing God. He knows what's at the end of the path, He built the bath house (oh my goodness - I just compared Heaven to a bathroom!) He gives us His Word to serve as our flashlight, our map. The more we immerse ourselves in it, the more illuminated the path becomes, and the less we fear the dark times.
That doesn't mean that life won't occasionally smack us in the face with a tree branch. We're sinners. We make mistakes, take the occasional detour, but God is always there to turn us back around and point us in the right direction! Knowing this serves as a huge comfort to me in such uncertain times. I don't know when I'll find a fulltime job with health insurance. I don't know how I'll pay off my student loans. I have no clue what the future holds, but I know that God will never leave my side.
