“Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
… Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.” Psalm 28: 6-9
My daughter and I were headed to a baby shower for my cousin, and we were running late, really late. I had not been to their new home. As we hurried into the car, I gave my daughter the responsibility of entering the address into Google Maps. She had just gotten her first phone and was excited to try it out. Off we went, I got to the highway and expected the “lady” to be telling me where to go next. But nothing…so I asked my daughter if she had pressed the start button.
“What start button?” she asked. I thought she was teasing me and now it was getting dangerously close to our being lost and even later.
“Seriously, just press the start button,” I grew impatient and worried as I sped along the highway.
“There is no start button,” she answered.
“Press the start button,” I directed.
“There is no start button!” she shouted.
I’d like to say I kept calm, but I did not. I finally had to pull over and determined that the settings on her phone would not allow for Google Maps as a navigation tool. So there was no start button to be pressed. Such a fuss and truly, all that was needed was to stop (not start) and take a breath and think it through from another’s perspective.
When we get ourselves all wound up in the rush and the “what we know to be right” we forget that there is almost always another way of looking at a situation. Before your voice rises and you declare that you are certain, re-think it, look at it differently. When you start from that perspective, you might find the way through it. On this Lenten journey, what perspectives have you not considered? What paths have you overlooked? What rush and fuss are keeping you from self-awareness and connection with community?
Submitted by Trish Dowd Kelne
Prayer Oh Lord, when we do not hear and we shout out, you hear us. Help us find the way to you – help us pause when we are rushing and caught up in all the mess of this world, help us rest in you. In your name we pray, amen.