Do not fret because of the wicked;
do not be envious of wrongdoers,
for they will soon fade like the grass,
and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make your vindication shine like the light,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out evil devices.
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
Do not fret—it leads only to evil.
For the wicked shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. -Psalm 37:1-9
Do not fret, trust in the Lord, take delight in the Lord, be still before the Lord, refrain from anger.
Yet the headlines tell us about this pandemic surge, erratic weather, political divided, warring nations, underwater volcanoes erupting, violence in places of worship. These are the things that we fret about “out there,” I have not even mentioned the fretting “in here,” within our own hearts and homes!!!
But don’t fret. And don’t be angry! Even though the headlines point to an angry world!
I do not believe God brings on calamity, killing the innocent and the not so innocent to teach lessons and make a point. That just does not line up with what I know of Jesus. But I do believe we live together in a world of laws, both scientific and laws of love, that are created by God. Whether we like it or not, we live together as ONE community, bound to one another and to these natural laws. In such a world, the guilty and the innocent suffer consequences when we take more from the planet and from one another than we were ever meant to take. I once expressed to a friend that I love wild animals because they do what they are supposed to do. The lion doesn’t eat all the gazelles, the lion eats just one gazelle. We are the descendants of Adam and Eve who decided to take more than what God instructed.
Through Jesus we know the law of love, compassion, cooperation, and sacrifice. Jesus even shows us that pain born of compassion is natural and of God. Jesus wept, and we weep too. But we also create another kind of pain for ourselves, an unnatural, unwarranted pain born out of our sin, that thing that whispers in our ears and tells us to take more and to be suspicious and jealous of our brother and sister. From this pain, fret and mistrust are born. Out of this pain, we become preoccupied with worry, and we forget to delight in the Lord. From this pain, we are not still before the Lord, but jittery and anxious before the Lord, and we are all too quick to anger.
St. Francis of Assisi said, “It was easy to love God in all that was beautiful. The lessons of deeper knowledge though, instructed me to embrace God in all things.”
God is at work in these headlines and in our brokenness, God is at work pointing us in a different direction. When that fretful sin and doubt whispers in our ear, there is God whispering to us as well. Even when we try our hardest not to hear God, our Lord is at the ready, the one who rescued us for all time, and relentlessly works to do so again and again each day.
Like the scripture says, we have inherited it all! Not conquered or acquired or mastered it all, but been given it all. This life, this land, one another, and our Lord Jesus. The lion follows the law of nature through his instinct, he doesn’t consider any other way. So let us be like this, following our Jesus instinct and living within the law of love. Amen.
-Leigh Sackett, Director of Christian Education
