This was posted here; but I was afraid it would be lost to view, being a week ago (ancient history in terms of blogs, eh?) So without permission or warning, I moved it up to more immediate view:
Our church put together a Lenten Devotional, I was asked to contribute for this day. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:1-12) Joy has not described much of this past year. Better descriptions are anxiety, worry and depression. A pandemic with over 440,000 deaths of Americans as I write this, angry mass protests against enduring racism, a bitter political campaign season, attacks on our government, loss of most of the normality of life with closed schools, restaurants, gyms and churches, lost jobs, financial worries, isolation and so much more. Anxiety, depression and worry seem much more appropriate than joy. So today we pray to God to help us. I want to ask God to relieve our depression and anxiety, but instead the psalmist says no, you need to ask for the willing spirit to restore joy. Joy! I shouldn’t be surprised. God’s world and vision is always bigger than what I can imagine. When I see someone in need, I (maybe on my better days) will give that extra shirt. God says give the one off your back. When that person with a view so radically different from my own grates against me I pray for tolerance, but God wants me to do more, to love. And when I want to be relieved of my sadness and worries, God sees a world of so much more, and wants to restore my joy. Joy! As people of faith we live in God’s world of hope. Not a world of rose co lored glasses and false hope, but a world of the endless hope of our Creator. As we gather together, “for where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them,” even if only over our computers, we gather to share our anxiety and worries, but more importantly our hope and joy. Joy! Dear God, in this time of worry and anxiety let me see the world of joy that flows from your endless hope.
--rustypickup
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