Uncharacteristically, this morning I awoke with the words: “Great is thy faithfulness” echoing within the labyrinth of my heart and mind. The words and their echo were not momentary, but were a quiet presence. When finally awake, I began to focus: in five hours I’ll join the others of our team, and in fifteen hours we’ll be en route to Istanbul and then Entebbe.
Those words, “Great is thy faithfulness,” were very clear to me, and yet I knew their context within the Book of Lamentations. Attributed to Jeremiah, Lamentations reflect the national horror and destruction that was Jerusalem and the vassal nation of Judah – utter ruin, without the least hint of hope, or so it must have felt. Nonetheless, in the midst of his five laments, in chapter 3 Jeremiah first penned:
“He shot into my vitals the arrows of his quiver; … He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is …”
And then he penned:
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
As I recalled the context of his words, the piercing anguish, I realized that my experience: the details and preparations for Uganda, the anxious thoughts, hardly compare to Jeremiah’s – or even the difficulties of those we’ll encounter in Uganda.
However, admittedly I too need to be reassured: our hours of travel; our getting to bed approximately fifty-five hours later; and the questions regarding our venture: Will we be of genuine encouragement?
So my day began … and then we discovered that our dog was horribly sick, necessitating a quick trip to the vet hospital. While Mary drove to the vet, I then began to receive emails from a dear friend, who needed my help asap. Not doubting his need, even as I packed a few last items, we then sought to fulfill his request: a gift card for a cancer patient – only to discover that we had fallen prey to an email scam.
As we lived these last-minute stresses, I was reminded: soon I would be among those, whose stresses far exceed mine, and yet daily they affirm: “God is good, and God is good all the time.” Indeed, He is faithful.
Hopefully,
Stan