Soul Tiredness and Singing

“For two weeks I holed up in a Colorado cabin…during my entire time there I opened only a Bible….I tried to set aside my existential questions, my personal disappointments and consider instead God’s point of view….”---Philip Yancey, Disappointment With God


“I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”---Psalm 13:6

I spend too much time (one minute is too much time) thinking about past mistakes and failures in my life. Usually when I consider passages like Psalm 13, I look to the after effects and how God brought me through. What if I’ve got it sideways?

On reflection I see glimmers that indicate God was working in the crucible of the trial itself. From God’s point of view those were periods of hammering out and shaping. I am coming to consider that the bountiful dealings include, nay, speak more directly to those seasons of pressure than to the milder, softer seasons leading up to and following the trials.

It’s not a coincidence. My wife is reading a book by Ann Voskamp. The challenge is to be thankful and find God’s gifts in the midst of life. I am in the midst of a dryer season, a season of soul-tiredness. We both are evaluating our place in life, ministry and this season. It is easy to be critical. It is crucial to maintain sobriety and a thankful, joy-seeking perspective. Bitterness and anger come to me without working at it.

Fall and winter are cold and dark months in the high desert  I will be working through the process of giving thanks. Walk with me as I try to see life with God’s point of view. I’m hopeful that I can awake from this weariness of spirit as I pursue God’s perspective.