Piling On

As many of our friends know nearly three years ago two boys were added to our household. Two brothers, ages 2 and 4 at the time, in foster care and in need of a new placement. One September evening Robin and I took them in and we haven’t looked back.

The boys are now 5 and 7. They play well together and also have a great relationship with our daughter, age 13. But they are boys, and brothers, and sometimes their play is best described as rambunctious. They'll climb on each other, occasionally “wrestling,” a form of play that sometimes becomes a bit more aggressive on the part of whomever is on top. They have three older brothers and I can imagine that if all five were together, and the play took the shape I’m describing, it would look like one of those times in a football game when the player is tackled but the defenders continue to pile on.

That kind of pile was the picture that came to mind as I was reading from Psalm 18, in verses 17-18, which read:

“He rescued me from my strong enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,”

“They confronted me in the day of my calamity” is another way of saying “things were bad and I was struggling, and they jumped on me some more, to make it all even worse.”

We can have days like that, or even seasons of life. Things are hard, life seems dark, and yet things get harder, the darkness gets deeper. But for God’s people, that is never the end of the story, or even the chapter or page in the book of our life. In the last half of verse 18 the psalmist speaks from the truth of his lived experience, saying:

“but the Lord was my support.”

Things were bad, and seeming to get worse, but the Lord was present, providing his strength to the one he loved.

The Psalms were written nearly 3,000 years ago but the truth that they speak to God’s children has never changed. The next time you feel as if life is piling on you remember that it is the Lord who is your support. In all things. At all times. In all ways. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.