"You could be dead"

As problems and stresses of life swirl around me, it’s good to keep perspective.  It seems that I have more than my share of problems lately.  They greet me every morning, they tuck me in each night.  Sometimes it feels like they will overtake me.  Then, like a cold slap to my face, my wife injects some perspective into my self-wallowing: “You could be dead”.

Boy, I needed that.

There are two people we know who both suddenly and unexpectedly died last week.  Both in their forties.  Both went to sleep, and just never woke up.  Their seemingly peaceful exit from this life has left a wake of despair and grief for their loved ones.  Loved ones who otherwise would have been planning baseball games and birthday parties, instead, found themselves picking out cemetery plots and planning services.

So, bring on the problems!  Bring on the bills, bring on the mechanical breakdowns, bring on the $5 per gallon of gas.   The stress I feel just helps remind me that I’m alive.

I’m alive, and I get to hug and kiss my wife and daughters every single day.  What else do I need?

Today’s passage at BibleGateway.com is so fitting.  Here’s the whole chapter:

Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. ^[a]

1 God is our refuge and strength,
       an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
       and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam
       and the mountains quake with their surging.
       Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
       the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;
       God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
       he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
       the God of Jacob is our fortress.
       Selah

8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
       the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
       he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
       he burns the shields ^[b] with fire.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
       I will be exalted among the nations,
       I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
       the God of Jacob is our fortress.
       Selah

 

Thank you, God, for being with me.  Though my mountains are quaking, help me to be still and know that you are God, and you will be with me always.