I awoke in the still dark of early morning with a children’s song in my head: “Stand firm, when life changes; stand firm in the ups and downs; stand firm for you know that God is in control….”  VBS song mixed with a swirling storm of anxieties (that night-time dragon we evade somewhat successfully during our waking hours). When you are half asleep there is no defense, and emotions hit raw and overwhelming; all the what-ifs and should-haves and if-onlys bigger and stronger for the darkness of night. King David must have faced them too, discovered how to weather the storm from within the shelter of the Most High: “He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge….You will not fear the terror of the night…nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness….”   (Psalm 91:4-5)

No coincidence that these songs for children speak so clearly to my heart this Summer. In the swirling changes I have been feeling much like a child again, vulnerable and unsure, trying to regain a sense of self.  I need to find a firm footing. “The storms of life may push and pull, but we are standing on the Rock that never rolls…”  My roles and relationships may change, but His love does not.  Families shift and alter, and it feels like tearing apart, but there is Truth that never moves.  Friends struggle with grief and death and loss, and we carry their sorrows, but in the strength of that Rock there is hope and power.  I grow weary in the wind and waves, but that’s all it is– just a storm that buffets in the night– and morning is ahead.

So I push my head up against Him like a child needing comfort, lay my aching heart down in His peace, and I sing. “The storms of life may push and pull; we will keep standing, God is in control.” The night won’t last forever.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'” (Psalm 91:1-2)

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” Corrie ten Boom