God, the Lord, is my strength. Habakkuk 3:19
What a lot of value we place on tracing things back!
- Tracing symptoms back to the cause of our pain or infection.
- Tracing syndromes back to a specific gene that set them in place.
- Tracing family lineage, even tracing DNA, to find our roots and connections.
- Tracing favorite family recipes back to Great-grandma.
- Tracing our fingertips along the strong family resemblance in the soft face of a newborn.
When there’s a clunk in the engine, we lift the hood and take a look or find someone else to do that.
When there’s an oversight, we follow the investigative news reports to see where things went wrong.
Tracking down evidence. Searching for clues.
Looking for some aspect that will confirm our hopes or fears.
Tracing requires us to sort important details from unimportant ones. To prioritize and keep focused on what’s important. Tracking means taking action day after day, doggedly hounding the problem until we wear it down.
All those daily choices demonstrate that we not only value the results we get when we track things down, but that we are usually capable of getting the results we need. In other words, the process of tracing things back works for us. It’s a pretty essential practice to learn if we are going to live well in our society.
Some trace wounds and frustrations back to God. Why is there no justice? Why do I have to deal with this? What else do I need to do? Where are you when I need you?
Others -- those who know him -- also trace life’s experiences back to him. But they gratefully claim that he is the source of their strength.
Strength…
To deal
With it all.
You might want to trace what Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:32-33. I especially found "The Message" to be helpful, but perhaps you'd prefer to track it down in a couple of different bible versions.
"Much Grace,"
Pastor Shirley
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