I Don't Want to Be Glad About Today, Lord

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” —Psalm 118:24, NIV.

She took too many pills, not enough to hurt herself, but more than she should have. It’s a warning sign. She promised not to do it again, but last night she was slipping into the same hole that had caused her to want to pull the earth down over her head just a couple of days earlier.

Miles away, a older women wraps her loneliness around her. Her beloved soul-mate is gone. She has barely recovered, even after several years. She is ill, making her even more isolated. Her circles of friends has shrunk. She is not a “couple” anymore. Some have died. Some are simply not able. The younger generation doesn’t seem to care, too busy with their own lives to think about an old woman alone.

The world marches on, filled with itself. More about me and less about Thee. The thunder from the pulpit is distant. It has collapsed into a whimper of self-help platitudes and what passes for worldly wisdom. The soul longs for more than the latest course by the latest best-selling author spouting his insights, a pale imitation of the real thing. Where is the power? The prophecy of a people going after what most strokes them, fulfills itself.

I have no power to change anything, so why try? Why get out of bed? Why rejoice in a day filled with more of the same frustration, futility and pain—mine and others.

I look again at what He said. Don’t rejoice in the events of the day, but in the One who made the day. The sun rises—God be praised. It moves, as it always has, from east to west, its constancy proclaiming the faithfulness of God. Look up, not down. Look at Him and not at anyone, or anything else. Keep going because He does, and you are with Him, held by Him, supported by Him, fed by Him, protected by Him, loved by Him, sent by Him.

Look at Him and the day He has made just for you and Him, and be glad.