Joshua 1-4, Psalm 143, Luke 14

Sucker Punch

It can be as simple as forgetting a meeting, or to pack a sack lunch for your child to take with them on a field trip, or just unable to get it together to get out of the door in time in the morning.  It can be as tragic as a poor diagnosis, or the unexpected loss of a loved one.  Or a tornado that rips everything you have built your entire life to shreds.

How can we even begin to pray when in this moment our minds are spinning, our hearts are breaking, and everything that we can see is beyond our control?

Psalm 143, verses 1-4, David sings of enemy attacks, dwelling in darkness, and a discouraged heart.

In verse 5, he meditates on all God has done for him.

Verses 6-12, David ask for mercy from his enemies. For direction. Restating his trust in God, and claiming His victory over David’s enemies, and reaffirming his trust in God’s grace and mercy.

Sucker punches that ruin your day, or change your world forever can cause us to doubt God’s presence.  It can rock our socks. Cause us to question.

In these moments, we only need look back. Remember those other sock rocking moments when we wondered how we would survive. How could we ever face the PTO again without being known as the women who didn’t send her child a lunch?  How would life ever go on without a loved one?  How could we  replace all the things that the storm ripped from us?   Our favorite pictures, the Family Bible, etc.

We can, and will because He has steadied us before.  Faith, and trust are the only treatment for sucker punches.  Like those old toy clowns we played with as kids, we just keep popping back up.  Thank you, God.

Father, You are good.  You love us so much more than our hearts can comprehend.  This world doesn’t play fair, but You are incapable of doing anything other than steadying from this world of confusion and chaos.  Father, today I choose to believe that while I hurt and grapple with things, that You can never be sucker punched.