Month: January 2021

The movie, Darkest Hour, tells the story of Winston Churchill’s early days as Prime Minister of the UK during World War 2. It seems clear today that Churchill was the right leader for the job but in May 1940 he had little support, especially from his own party. There was great pressure in his war cabinet to seek a peace agreement with Hitler as many members didn’t want to fight a war. To counter the pressure and deal with rumors about his plans Churchill goes to Parliament and makes his famous “Never give up” speech. The speech changed the mood, opposition seemed to vanish, his party rallied to his side and the battle of Britain was on. In the movie, one man turns to the other, after the speech, and asks, “What just happened?” “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle” was the reply. Words matter. Words are powerful. They can be used for good and they can be used to cause great damage. We don’t have to look to social media influences or national leaders to understand this. Our lives are impacted by the power of words every day. In Psalm 64, David is asking God to hide him from his relentless enemies. While he mentions a number of weapons he refers to the power of the tongue. “Hide me” he prays, from the wicked who “sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.” (Psalm 64:3) These enemies love to take pot-shots at innocent people without warning. Harsh words can wound and cause damage with far reaching effects. We think of David as the great warrior on the battlefield, fighting physically for his nation. In this Psalm, I think his pain is coming from somewhere else. People have wounded him with falsehood and lies. It seems this was the intention of his enemies, to use their words as weapons. Scripture counsels us many times to watch our words for they can cause as much damage as a bottle of poison. (James 3:3-12) It’s easy to make quick comments on social media or send a flippant text message without thinking. We throw out words without care for how they may sound. The tongue may be the hardest part of the body to sanctify.

2020 was a rough year and 2021 has some challenges ahead. The coronavirus continues to rage, political polarization is dividing people, the economy is fragile, people are tired and frustrated. It’s a bad combination of events. So the beginning of Psalm 46 is one we all need to hear: God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble, Therefore we will not fear The image that comes to mind when I read Psalm 46 is that of a parent and child. The child is frightened or scared, maybe overtired from the day. They are crying and can’t seem to settle down. The parent comes along and wraps their arms around the child, saying “there, there, everything is going to be okay. I’ve got you, just relax.” No matter how old we get we still need that kind of love from our heavenly father. Israel was a nation that faced many threats. The Psalmist declares that God is greater than any enemy – seen or unseen. God himself is in Zion, he dwells among his people, and so they need not be fearful. The Psalm ends with this, Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth! No matter what is happening in the nations these days, God will be exalted. He is above all of this. None of this surprises him or will take away from his sovereign plans. Be still and know. Your heavenly Father is caring for you.

Abe Donsky from Connecticut is credited with inventing the night light in 1965. Not surprisingly, he was the father of four children. If you have young children at home then one of the must have items in the house is night light. They have been greatly improved over the last 55 years but still serve the same purpose – to help children who are afraid of the dark. If wonder if in the days before electricity parents had to leave a candle burning or oil lamp on for the night. Parents in need of sleep will do many things to get it. Now that I know Mr. Donsky was the inventor I can send him my thanks. What makes the darkness so frightening? For one thing, we can’t see and when we can’t see our imagination takes over. Children begin to envision or imagine all kinds of creatures that might ‘be out there.’ Despite parents best speeches about how safe it is at night, some children just can’t let it go. So, they place a small light somewhere in the room or a hallway, just enough that if the child awakes they can see that all is well. As we grow up, we usually overcome our fear of darkness but our imagination still works just fine. When we can’t see what lies ahead of us, when we feel like there might be danger, we have plenty of voices painting scary pictures in our mind. When we sense danger there is no end to the scenarios that we can create and that only leads to more fear. Psalm 27 begins with this verse: The Lord is my light and my salvation. (27:1) How reassuring that verse is. Because he is our light, we can see the reality of where we are. We can see the world; we can see our own situation in the light of Jesus Christ.  Even when there is legitimate danger we can rest assured that nothing in the darkness is hidden from God. When everything around us seems to be dangerous or hard to comprehend, “he will hide me in his shelter.” (27:5) Learning this truth is another good reason to keep reading through scripture.

One day, a teacher announced to her class there would be a surprise test.  She handed out a sheet of paper face down to each student. The teacher said, “When you turn the paper over, I want you to write about what you see.” When the students turned the paper over there was just a small black dot in the centre of the page. It was an odd test but the students started writing. Once the papers were collected the teacher started reading the answers out loud to the whole class. All of the students had written about the black dot, trying to describe it, its size and position. After reading out all the answers, the teacher said to the students: “None of you will be graded on this test. I just wanted you to think over something. All of you wrote about the black dot. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. The same thing happens in our lives too. We all have a white paper to observe and learn from, yet we always focus on the dark spots. We have so many reasons to celebrate – our parents, co-workers, friends, good health, a satisfactory job, a child’s smile, the miracles we witness every day, and so on. However, we simply limit our horizons by focusing on just the dark spots – our disappointments, our frustrations, our fears and anxieties, things that bother us, people that wronged us, etc. In our day-to-day lives, we tend to take so many good things for granted, and focus our energy on insignificant dot-like failures and disappointments.” (Source: R. Sharma) The Psalmist says, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 9:1) As you read through Psalm 9 it is clear that there is much pain and suffering but the Psalmist wants to focus on the goodness of God. Life is more positive when we let our praise and thanksgiving to God govern our thoughts.