Thoughts While Traveling

This summer while moving, visiting family, and exploring nature, I have been slowly reading the book "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society" by Eugene Peterson. The book has a chapter on each of the Songs of Ascent (Psalm 120-134), which would have been recited or sung by the Hebrews when traveling to Jerusalem for the annual festivals. Petersen uses these songs to highlight practices of discipleship imperative to the Christian walk with God.

In discussing providence and trusting God using Psalm 121, Petersen reminds us: "The promise of the Psalm - and both Hebrew and Christians have always read it this way - is not that we shall never stub our toes but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to separate us from God's purposes in us." Then he asks: "Do you think the way to tell the story of the Christian journey is to describe its trials and tribulations? It is not. It is to name and to describe God who preserves, accompanies and rules us." This reminded me of the practice of thanksgiving described by Ann Voskamp in her book "One Thousand Gifts", the daily practice of naming specific things to be thankful for and in the process find the God who can be trusted, come what may. In fact, in the next chapter we find Psalm 122:4b "To give thanks to the name of God - this is what it means to be Israel" (The Message).

In the midst of our move and travel, it is hard to find the brain space and quiet time to flesh out these ideas in a blog post like I would like. Instead I just keep reading them over and over, marveling at a God who knows, sees, understands, forgives, extends graces, blesses, and redeems in the midst of the hard, the impossible, the ordinary, the exciting, the nerve wracking, and the memorable. May God's peace be with each of us as we journey through another day.