Just Comes
by Dennis Nelson
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”– Psalm 46:1
Do you know about grits? It is ground corn, boiled into porridge, and frequently served as a breakfast side dish. A friend who lived many years in South Carolina once told me that in the South, grits ‘just comes’ with whatever breakfast you order.
Trouble is like that: it ‘just comes’ with life, for all of us. During our recent return trip to Green Valley (after a summer at our lake in Minnesota), trouble intruded into our plans. In the early evening darkness, a deer, heading for a drink from the river on the other side of Interstate 35, found itself in the same place as the front of our car and absorbed the momentum of thousands of pounds of steel traveling at highway speed; it was a collision that ended its life.
Sue and I were grateful to be only bruised by seat belts that held us in place as the automated emergency braking system managed a seemingly instant, skid-free stop. At the same time, airbags deployed all around us, cushioning the car’s hard interior surfaces. Our Ford was a totaled-out wreck, but we were safe and the next day able to continue our trip in a rented vehicle.
An ancient poet put faith into the words that begin Psalm 46: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ That writer celebrates the truth that God’s grace ‘just comes’ in time of trouble. I dare to believe in every time of trouble.
I am certainly grateful that we escaped the worst of what might have happened to us on Interstate 35. But whatever the outcome of the trouble that comes our way, the Psalmist has it right. ‘God is our refuge and strength.’ That is a gift of grace worth celebrating and sharing in a world where trouble ‘just comes.’
Journaling:
Has trouble come into your life journey that, at the time, or even long since, made it difficult for you to see God’s presence as refuge and strength?
Who do you know that would be helped if you were to be part of the means by which God’s presence is known, not in quoting the Psalm, but in being there for them?