God and I had a 20-minute chat down 45 South on Saturday morning to clarify an issue that has been at the heart of our relationship for quite awhile.
I confess that I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders, which may explain the three surgeries and countless hours of rehab over the past 23 years. Despite clearly understanding I am not God, my concern for those I love and this world in general can sometimes weigh me now, with the most recent resulting in what has been a month-long case of the blahs that I’ve experienced.
I care. I care about each and every one of you and the people who I am connected with. If I could, I would solve everyone’s problem in an instant and take your pain away. If I could, I’d see to it that no one died from gun violence, there would be no homelessness and that the Astros could find a catcher that can actually hit.
Psalms 55:22 reads, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”
We don’t have to look far to know that sometimes it feels like the righteous are being rattled and nothing is being done about it, but as the verse tells us, all we have to do is cast whatever we are feeling on the Lord and he will sustain us throughout. He’s done so for the past two years through this pandemic, and there’s not a single one of us who cannot say that He hasn’t sustained us through whatever personal challenge we may have confronted in our lives.
At least three times this week, someone used the word “dependable” to describe me. My brother-in-law did so on Thursday after I picked them up from the airport from their family trip to Las Vegas while I dog sat. My editor at the Canadian Football League used it on Friday after I beat my first deadline of the season by two days.
And God used it on Saturday.
It’s an honor and a privilege to be described as such. Being dependable to God, at least for me, also means that you want to be dependable to everyone you love. Most times, you can be, yet not every time.
I want to be dependable in the eyes of God. You want to be. We all want to be. We must also be willing to accept that our path toward doing so also comes with accepting that our choice may not always fall in line with the things and choices our ego self covets. That’s OK. I have accepted that years ago, and that’s why I am here and why we are all here.
I close with this: no matter how well-intended we are, we have to let go and let God. When we do, as I experienced yesterday, you begin to feel alive once again and remember to love and appreciate every moment He has blessed us with.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
We cast our burdens upon you. Not all burdens are bad, but our imperfect selves occasionally have a timetable that doesn’t connect with yours’. Help us to let go of the ledge we tend to find ourselves holding upon with all our being and know that as we gracefully fall through the clouds, You are there to catch us when it’s time to land. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
Brandon C. Williams is the Editor of the Post Newspaper and has been a member of First Christian Church in La Marque since 2019
