“When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Psalm 61
Life can be overwhelming at times. Even when all is going according to plan, the wise person understands that they are not really in charge. It is in those moments we are most certain of our ability to stand on our own that we ought to beware of falling flat on our faces.
Confidence and faith are not synonymous though they are often mistaken for one another. Confidence is an inward assurance, which may or may not be born of faith. Faith is an upward reaching action based on the knowledge that there is something higher of which to take hold.
Faith does not grasp at straws or flail blindly for purchase, it reaches for a proven object—one that functions as a shield. I have been told that my faith is a crutch. The words were meant to be a derogatory comment regarding my personal weakness. It failed to wound me because I know a crutch to be an instrument of healing.
I used to work on a ward that dealt almost exclusively in horrific diabetic foot ulcers. Cratered heels, dissolving bones and dead flesh was our stock in trade. To each person afflicted with such wounds a crutch was given with the instructions to keep their weight off the injured foot by leaning on their crutch.
A soul, wounded as mine was, needed a crutch to lean on. When healing came, I could live without constantly leaning on the crutch—but I didn’t throw it away. I shared it instead. Now, when I am wounded and in need of something to bear me up there are those ready and willing to share their crutch with me.
Pilate asked Jesus what the truth was. The Truth is a person. Life has a way. The Way is also a person. For the overwhelmed soul there is a rock to cling to amid the flood. The Rock is a person—Jesus Christ.
“On Christ the solid Rock, I stand—all other ground is sinking sand.”
Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.
Maranatha
