Higher Than I

There are great griefs and lesser ones; often the proximity and sphere of influence dictate the proportion of pain. It may not be my child with a granite-carved diagnosis of cancer, but it strikes at my heart because I have a boy who was that age ...almost yesterday.  Likely, hundreds who know his reeling family feel the same way.  I may have dined out in peace last night, but others were dining as vulnerable as I when the world exploded around them. And then thousands who knew someone who knew someone broadened the blast.  Although my son and my city have been spared thus far, and the mourning has a degree of removal in the impact, the overall consequence is an unbearable heaviness.

In this fallen world, there has always been sickness and hatred -- and the destruction caused by each. But lately there seems very little else, and it is piling up all around. Unbelief is supplanting faith, estrangement is dismembering families, open warfare is battering communities...the world appears precariously balanced on the verge of catastrophe, and I feel so very helpless.

Because I have been looking to my own strength, again.  I have been "putting my trust in princes".  I have been hoping in doctors and presidents and common humanity...and we have all failed.  

Seeing around me the waves of this sea I am Peter, emboldened to ask for the display of God's greatness to walk above the troubled water, yet drowning from fear when I acknowledge the ferocity of the storm. It would be impious to minimize the danger, but faith requires more.
Peter faced the reality of his physical circumstances; however, he neglected to account for the magnitude of his Deliverer.

And so I pray.
I intercede for bodies to be strengthened to fight disease and injury.
I plead for mercy and rescue and peace and healing.
Because that is what Peter did when there was nothing he could do.

"But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Lord, save me.' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'"

Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.

Let me dwell in your tent forever!

Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!