Hold On! The Tide Will Turn

 "O Lord my God, I call for help 
by day.
I cry out in the night before you.
Let my prayer come before you
incline your ear to my cry!...

Your wrath has swept over me,
 your dread assaults, destroy me.
They surround me like a flood all day long
they close in upon me together.
You have caused loved one and friend to shun me
my companions are in darkness."  Ps 88: 1, 15b-18

That psalm screams desolation. Three thousand years ago King David was obviously distraught when he called out to his God in agony.  In this psalm, I think David was basically saying:

"I have no more strength to keep on fighting.  I cant do this anymore. There is little hope for me. Every road is a dead end. My well is all dried up.  I don't want to face another day.  I am alone."  

This life can be extremely difficult. It takes all you've got just to stay afloat.  Life is the seemingly never ending work out at the gym with no hope of a cool down.

This past weekend I saw Cast Away starring Tom Hanks for the first time. ( Yes..the first time)  The premise of the movie is this: Chuck (Tom Hanks) survives a plane crash and is left stranded on a tropical island for 4 years.  He finally decides to creates a makeshift raft using a big piece of plastic that the tide bought in for a sail. He takes his chances on the open sea where he is eventually rescued. His friend asks how he survived all that time and his answer was memorable. He said he was able to survive because the sun rose everyday and he never knew what the tide would bring.

The take away for me is this: when life gets difficult it is vitally important to maintain perspective. Life ebbs and flows. Situations are transient. Circumstances change. Life includes suffering.  In my faith I am taught to have hope because " The Lord works out all things for good for those that love Him" (Romans 8:28)  Like Chuck in Cast Away I need to keep on keepin' on because I never know what tomorrow's tide will bring.