A Great Tempest Arose

This afternoon I took a closer look at the stock market. The news headlines were all screaming about the panic on Wall Street and how stocks were plummeting in response to the sinking Chinese economy. It is one thing to read a headline; it is quite another to log on and follow the market second by second. I followed the Dow Jones and within a few minutes it had dropped over a hundred points. I kept watching, and it kept plummeting. Suddenly it started to rise a bit, and then fall some more. Then it rose again for a little while before resuming its descent.

It made me feel giddy, It was like the waves of a storm, a worldwide storm. Outside my window the weather looked nice and calm. Inside my mind, though, I was starting to feel agitated, wondering what this was doing to my retirement funds. It occurred to me that this mental agitation was but the tiniest part of a much larger picture. Waves of mental anguish were at this moment sweeping through the emotions of millions upon millions of people world-wide. This was nothing less that a psychological tsunami.

It seemed to me, though, that there was nothing I could do about it. There was no point in selling any of my stock or withdrawing any funds at this point. I have no idea whether prices will continue to sink, or begin to rise. And really, nobody else knows what is going to happen. The direction of the market is the result of millions of individual decisions. No one person can control it. Even governments, though they can have an influence, cannot dictate the outcome.

Only our Lord, who is God of both heaven and earth, really rules over such things. And He will at times permit things to happen in the short term because His real concern is the long term, and, indeed, our eternal welfare. Sometimes it is useful for people, who make worldly things to be an end in themselves, to get shaken up so that perhaps, just perhaps, they will reexamine their priorities.

It is a comforting thought--it brings comfort from deep within--to remember that He is in charge. It brings perspective to such worldly ups and downs, such financial storms. Money is not everything. We cannot even take it with us. There are deeper and far more important concerns. Do we have trust in Him? Do we love our fellow human beings? Are we acquiring spiritual wealth, eternal wealth, from His Word?

The stock market storm is only a worldly storm. And even this worldly storm is in our Lord's hands. He is in control. To know this, to believe this, will help calm even the most violent surges of panic.

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matt. 8:23-27).

Thinking about Our Thoughts

Thought is such an interesting thing to think about. It sounds humorous to say this, but it is actually a very serious observation. Because we can think about what we are thinking, we must surely conclude that there are different levels of thought. From one level we can look down and observe our flow of thoughts on a lower level. Not only that, it is possible, to some degree, to control the flow of our thoughts on that lower level. We can, for example, say to ourselves, "I must try to stop thinking so pessimistically."

Thought is central to what makes us to be human beings. And the way we think says a lot about what kind of people we are. Look down again at your thoughts. Notice what you think about the most. What kinds of things occupy your mind? Angry thoughts? Thoughts of hopelessness? Or perhaps you are a happier kind of person with a mind filled mostly with cheerfulness and contentment.

Take the time occasionally to notice the flow of your thoughts. Your thoughts are actually a reflection of what it is you most love deep down inside. If you have lots of angry thoughts about other people, then perhaps, just perhaps, you love and care about yourself far more than you do about others. Selfish people tend to be very angry people. Not only that, selfish people are people who lack a good relationship with their God. Only our Heavenly Father can lift us up above selfishness, above bitterness, and bless us with a heart of cheerfulness and contentment and love. And He can only do this if we turn to Him in prayer and in a life of obedience to His commandments. Follow Him for only He can give you peace.

Look down on those thoughts. Watch their flow. It can teach you a lot about yourself, and about your relationship with Him.

Youth

Older people, and I am getting to be one, were once young.  Not only do they remember being young, but they remember when they never imagined they would get old.

It happens though.  Slowly, so slowly it is hard to notice, the body ages and changes. The word "inevitable" comes to mind.  We are used to fixing problems.  Something is broken?  We get it repaired.  Or replaced. We like to be in control.  But you cannot replace your entire body. There are some ways in which we can slow down the aging process and so have some control.  Healthy living--a good diet and regular exercise--can certainly be very helpful. Time, though, marches on, and it seems to do so at an increasingly rapid pace.  Where did it all go to?

Remembering our own youth is, it seems to me, mostly an introspective activity.  We may reflect within ourselves about when we were young, but others see us as we now are.  They don't think of us as people who once were young. To them we are older people.

My memories of my grandmother are of an elderly lady--a wonderful human being, but elderly neverthless, I recollect asking one of my aunts, when I was a young child, about a painting on my grandma's wall.  It was a painting of a beautiful young woman.  I remember laughing, as a child, when I was told it was a picture of my grandma.  At that age I could not wrap my mind around this concept that old people were once young.

And yet they were once young.  All of us were at one point newborn babies, starting out on the inevitable trajectory of life.  All babies, if they live long enough, become old.  At least their bodies grow old.

Our spirits, our minds, are different. If we are wise enough to turn to the Lord and keep our sense of wonder, and avoid toxic emotions such as bitterness and resentment--emotions which poison the spirit--we will remain young inside.

My grandmother had an aging body, but she was young inside. She was full of fun, of love, of kindness.  She was a child of God,  This was brought home to me just recently.  I was sent some photos of her when she was only fifteen or so. As I looked at her as she looked over a hundred years ago, she looked very different from the way I remembered her in her later years.  And yet in a way she looked the same.  That childlike and innocent spirit so evident in the photos, never departed from her. As she grew wiser, her childlike and innocent spirit also grew and deepened.

I believe she is in heaven.  I believe she looks young and even more beautiful than when she was fifteen here on earth.

None of us have to grow old.

The Divine Lullaby

We know that the Word of God is living.  It is not just a book written down and left by the Lord for us to read by ourselves.  He is with us as we read, helping us notice things, and giving us the light and love to see the most wonderful things within those holy pages.  This is why the Word never grows old.  We can, if we open our minds and hearts and bow our heads, learn new things every time we read, seeing things we never saw  before.

I have read the 42nd Psalm countless times, but today, in reading it once more, a small phrase jumped out.  "In the night His song shall be with me" (Ps. 42:8).  It seemed at first to be saying that during the night the Lord sings to you.

Admittedly, the wording is ambiguous.  Perhaps David is the one singing, singing to the Lord "His" song.  This may well be the case, given that the verses continues, "and my prayer unto the God of my life."  If we reflect, though, we realize that even if David is the one singing, he really is not singing alone.

As we read the Word, the Lord is with us in that reading, helping us see and understand.  As we pray, He is with us in the thoughts and feelings behind our words, helping us to know what to say.  And when we sing?  Surely He is with us in our singing, and rejoicing in His being present with us.

Perhaps, the next time you have trouble sleeping, your mind filled with all kinds of useless worries, you can focus on His song, the song of our Father and Savior, the song of the Lord who will never leave us.