Give me your lantern and compass,
give me a map,
So I can find my way to the sacred mountain,
to the place of your presence,
To enter the place of worship,
meet my exuberant God,
Sing my thanks with a harp,
magnificent God, my God.
Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
Psalm 43:3-5
“Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?”
Christmas can be a time when the sting of everyday hurts feels even stronger. And some pain so raw, it seems like it will never get easier.
I know.
I’m not one to talk someone else out of pain. But sometimes we are looking for relief. We want to know it will hurt less…eventually.
I can’t promise when, or how that relief will come.
I simply choose to believe God’s promise that he can put a smile on my face. What that smile feels like for you…for me, again I don’t know, but I do know he is the source of joy. So it makes sense to me that he is the one to restore even the smallest of smiles.
My prayer everyday is to find that map to his presence. The star to follow. It is my daily quest.
Addendum: I’m adding this after reading through this post to promise you I don’t believe in quick, trite fixes. If there is part of you that reads what I wrote above and feels I am dismissive of real hurt, please know I am not. It is the mystery that is faith. To believe that things will get better when we don’t know quite how that will happen. I don’t understand it all. AT ALL. It is faith that there still is good. There still is love.