Not Just There but VERY There

 Are you going through something right now?  

Maybe it's political stress.  Perhaps a health crisis. Economic stress weighing you down and causing you worry?  Or, what may be even worse, your children are going through something hard that you can't fix.  

What is stealing your sleep?  What is robbing your joy?  What's gobbling up your headspace?  What is it that is threatening you?

Is the earth underneath you shaking?  Do you feel like your life is on the edge of a cliff in a mudslide?  Do you feel like you're in a wave pool or sea and timing every wave wrong so that whenever you need a breath you get dowsed instead?

If your world is all as it should be, then good for you.  You can stop reading or you can save this for a future need, but this post is for those who are in a bind.  This, based on Psalm 46, is for those of us who need help.

Look at Psalm 46 and be encouraged:

"God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

I love this verse.  I have been reading through the psalms this year and 19 days ago I read this and it has stuck with me and I am glad for this.

Do you need help?  God is your help!

God is our refuge.  He is the tank we can be safe in as we go through the battles of life.  He is the brick house, not a house of straw or sticks.  He is our strength.  When I am weak, He is strong.

And my favorite part: God is a very present help in trouble.

When you are going through the junk of life and need help He isn't just there He is VERY there.  Are you in trouble and need help?  God is not just with you, He is very with you.  He's not just with you; He is there to help.  Help isn't on the way; help is very there!

The ESV is what I quoted above.  The NASB says God is a, "very ready help." The NIV says He is an, "ever present help."  Put these together and this is God: He is very there, very ready and, in fact, He was always there even before you shouted for help.

Why do I harp on God being VERY present?  Too often I pray to God like I talk to an imaginary friend.  I must take this verse to heart and believe it to be true and act accordingly.  God isn't an idea, He is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  He actually, honestly, truthfully and very much is with me and you in our trouble.

So, what do we do in light of this truth?  

"Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling." Psalm 46:2-3

God is our tank in the battle, so we roll forward unafraid. God is our strength, so we don't act as though impotent but we act in light of the omnipotent power source we possess.  God is very much with us in the trouble, so we just ain't afraid.  

When we understand verse 1 we can live verse 2.  This isn't just poetry.  This isn't just a song.  This is really, truly who our God is.  He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Go back to that thing that you said was bothering you, was tormenting you, was threatening you, was snatching your sleep.  It. Is. Real.  But so, and even more so, is your God and Savior.  Meditate on that truth.  

Let's turn now to the end and let it be our benediction and prayer:

"'Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!'
The LORD of host is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress." Psalm 46:10-11

The sons of Korah, the writers of this song, leave us with two reminders and so will I. 

1) The God of angel armies is with us.

2) The God who loves cheating scoundrels like Jacob is our protection.

And the final word of the psalm is Selah.  Selah is a Hebrew musical term that likely means rest or pause.  So, selah.  Know this beautiful truth, meditate on it and then rest in it. Rest.  Lean into this wonderful truth about your very there God and relax today.

Can You Pursue Humility?

 I don't think anyone has an easy time being humble. Certainly some have this virtue and necessary quality come easier, but I would doubt it comes easy to anyone.

That said, I think about my struggle for humility and feel stuck.  

One of the desires in my soul is to be known and to be known for the right things.  My reputation is something I protect and I don't think that it's wrong. Proverbs 22:1a says, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches..."  

Plus, as a radio broadcaster my position is public.  Sometimes the job is called "Radio Personality".  My job is to be heard and known.  I somehow have to humbly think everyone should listen to me and then work to make that happen.

Can you see my plight?  I want humility and at the same time my soul wants to be known as humble.  Is that desire even humble? Can you relate even if your job isn't to hope more people tune in to listen to you today than yesterday?

What a confusing thing.  I guess what I'm trying to wonder is: Can one aspire to humility and, if so, how?

"Humility is so shy.  If you begin talking about it, it leaves." -Tim Keller

Humility is a mysterious thing to pursue.  This is especially true when it feels that humility runs further away when you focus on her.  And if she isn't running she begins to feel less like you and more foreign to all you are.  And can you even know she's been attained if you do indeed catch her?

"... smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, 'By jove! I'm being humble', and almost immediately pride... pride at his own humility... will appear.  If he awakens to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt... and so on, through as many stages as you please." -C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters chapter 14.

The cycle exists in my life.  The moment I see humility in my life she magically is replaced by her ugly and unwanted houseguest of an opposite, Pride.  

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24

Perhaps, pastor Rick Warren was right when he synthesized Lewis' Screwtape Letter on humility into a favorite sentence of mine: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less."  Perhaps, thinking about humility is good but thinking of my humility is wrong.  Maybe the way to pursue humility is to only pursue it in the person of Christ. 

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant..." Philippians 2:3-7a

See, this humility is only mine In Christ Jesus.  Looking for it on its own is a chasing after the wind.  And even though I see and know this truth getting and displaying humility is still a struggle.  

Perhaps my strategy of should be less one of chasing humility and more of evicting Pride so her more beautiful opposite, Humility, can shine in that strange, unassuming beauty that is hers and hers alone.

"And He said to them, 'This kind (of demon) cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Mark 9:29

I in the fourteen years of writing in this blog have tried to end with some sort of a charge toward you, the reader, to do today.  Though I'm betting your desire for humility and struggle for her feels a lot like mine, I won't end with a charge but a request for a favor.  Pray for me to have humility and pray that God will be gentle in helping me evict pride today.