Psalm 143 | Wayfarer

Dawn Over Lake of the Ozarks — photo by Tom Vander Well

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 143:8 (NIV)

Morning has always been one of my favorite times of the day. Each day I wake up and the sun rises it is a fresh eucatastrophe of Life. Hope comes with the dawn and I have a fresh start and a clean slate in front of me. Whatever poor choices I made yesterday, the dawn brings opportunity to make different and better choices today. I can’t change the past, but each morning I am reminded that I have this day to love well, live well, laugh well, en-joy my blessings, be a blessing to others, and join the Creator in the art of creating something new.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote in his poem of Lamentation that God’s love and compassion are “new every morning.” Old things pass away each night, and new things come with the break of each dawn.

Today lies before me like a blank canvas. What picture will I paint in my relationships? What story will I write with my choices? I am not guaranteed a tomorrow. What will I do with this one day that is dawning; The one day I know I have before me?

Good morning.

Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. Psalm 143:8b (MSG)

How often we find ourselves at the crossroads. Which way now? Which college should I go to? Which house should I buy? What job should I take? Should I stay or should I go?

It is so easy to be paralyzed by fear that the next step will be the wrong step. If I make a wrong move, I'm doomed forever. Like David's lyric, we plead with God to point out the road. "Why am I left standing here with nothing but my imperfect sense of direction? Why didn't God equip life with GPS navigation?!"

As my daughter stood at the crossroads a year or so ago, I saw her struggle with some paralyzing life choices. Drawing on a musical metaphor, I tried to express a little fatherly wisdom from my own journey in a letter to her:

I don’t think that there is always a right and wrong choice – I believe that you must do right in the choice you make. I don’t believe that our choices are prescribed by God, but are more like notes on a blank sheet of staff paper. Our choices are the melody line we plunk out- it can be beautiful and melodious or dissonant and discordant. Either way, God the great composer stands behind us and creates his own inimitable orchestration around the little melody line of life we plunk out in our choices. Does that mean it doesn’t matter? No! For the notes we choose affect each listener and each person who is a part of the orchestration of our lives. Some choices may be bold and begin a new movement in your symphony. There will be choices that aren’t right or wrong- they just are. God will weave his baton as the audience waits breathless in anticipation of what will emerge.

Sometimes, the important choice is not which road to take, but the choice to stop looking for a map and start moving.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and cesarsp

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