Category Archives: faith

Reflection on Psalm 143

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Mornings with chronic illness are hard. I rise slowly, no less tired than I was when I climbed into bed nine hours ago, taking a moment here to flex ankles and elbows, another there to try to work the kinks out of my neck, all the while assessing which muscles are most sore, which joints most stiff and painful this day. Depression sits on the edge of the mattress beside me, observing that I have a progressive disease – one that won’t be cured but will, in fact, worsen the longer I live with it.

But there is a husband, a teenager, a grandchild who requires my attention, so I push myself up and face the day, thankful that at least the heat of Texas summer is finally ending and it will be pleasant to sit on the patio for a while.

Psalms. Coffee. Porch swing time. Somehow, breathing outside in the relative quiet, reading the well-worn words, nourishes me enough to go on with a small modicum of grace.

I’ve been reading the Psalms for nearly fifty years now, never dwelling long on the ones about battles and vengeance; they seem far removed from my modern, mostly suburban American life.

But as I read Psalm 143 this morning, my foggy brain gradually came to realize that David was not necessarily talking about a human foe here: “For the enemy has pursued my soul;” “he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead;” “my spirit faints within me.” These sentiments feel true in my own despondency. Is the man after God’s own heart, perhaps, praying these words in his own time of overwhelming weariness and sadness?

He goes on to declare, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done.” And I do. I know that God has acted on my behalf in the past, that he has previously rescued me not only from physical dangers, but from blinding black sorrows and feelings of despair. I know, but I can’t feel it right now. “Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails!”

“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,” please, just a wisp of hope somewhere in the breeze, a reminder of joy in the chickadees’ chatter, “for in you I trust,” because it has been the pattern of my years, because I don’t know what else to do, because in spite of everything, I do still believe you hold me in your hands.

Tuesday’s Word: mundane

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Many of you will be aware of the story of Kara Tippetts, a remarkable woman who shared her journey through breast cancer in the light of faith. Christianity Today  recently featured an article remembering Kara and her ‘mundane faithfulness’ (the title of her blog). In response, a friend of mine wondered, “Is faithfulness ever mundane?”

mundane:  lacking interest or excitement; dull

I get what she was saying. The workaday meaning, the definition that comes up at the top of the list when you Google the word, indicates that mundane is synonymous with boring, tedious, and wearisome. We view the mundane tasks of our days with distaste, either rushing through them first thing in the morning to get them out of the way or putting them off as long as possible so as not to waste the best part of the day on them. To label faithfulness as mundane will suggest to some people that it is lackluster, uneventful, not worthy of the time and effort required to practice it.

But wait. There’s more.

Some other listed synonyms of mundane are unvarying, repetitive, routine. It still doesn’t sound particularly exhilarating, but do you see what I see? These words are uncannily descriptive of faithfulness!

There’s another definition, too – one that is much more closely tied to the Latin origin of the word.

mundane:  of, relating to, or characteristic of the world
(as contrasted with heaven)

In this light, what could faithfulness be except mundane? Here, in the world we live in, the world of which we’re made – this is where we must practice the repetitive acts of prayer and care and intention and devotion which constitute the daily living out of our faith.