Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. Psalm 143:10
The night before my wife, Mary Alice, was operated on for a brain tumor, I sat thinking as she slept, realizing this could be our last night together. I needed to hear a word from the mountain. It came from a surprising source: a young Elvis Presley singing gospel songs.
He opened with “Peace in the Valley.” One line that especially hit me was “There will be peace in the valley for me.” I was in the valley; I needed to realize God’s peace. Then he sang “Precious Lord, take my hand. … I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.” And I was. Then came the triumphant line from another song: “I know who holds tomorrow,/ And I know who holds my hand.” I responded with faith and said, “Hold on to the hope.” Elvis next sang “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” My heart echoed, “I am weak, but thou art strong. … I’ll be satisfied as long/ As I walk, let me walk close to thee.” I found in that holy moment of music the vitality of faith I needed, and it carried me through the operation.
Yet God also meets us on our mountaintops, when things are going well. My friend Bob is a successful New York executive who has made it big in Australia. Bob is an atheist. He surprised me, therefore, with his criticism of atheism, saying, “Fred, the worst thing about being an atheist is that when everything goes much better than I deserve, I have no one to thank. I wish I believed in God so I could thank him for my good fortune.”
But does God also meet us on the level places? Bob’s comment made me wonder, Is God just for the extreme times of blessings?
On the other hand, the secular press reported that the counselors sent into the schools following the terrible Littleton, Colorado, school tragedy were sitting idle while the students were crowding the churches, praying and sharing their grief with each other. I know their feelings and share them, but now the question is, Is God just for the tragedies in our lives?
Could Satan harm us any more than by getting us to relegate God to the extreme times of our lives? The extremes are temporary and pass away. The vast majority of our lives are spent in the ordinary, the unspectacular “humdrum” routine of living our day-to-day existence. Yet God assures us that he is forever faithful. His presence is constant, whether we are on the mountaintop, in the valley, or plodding along the long road across the plains.
—Fred Smith Sr.
Reflection
How can I sensitize myself to seeing God through the humdrum of my life?
Prayer
God, it’s another typical day—not much exciting, just more of the same. Yet I sense your presence, I seek your guiding hand, and I rejoice in spite of the routine simply because you have chosen me to be your child.
“My grandmother used to tell me that every boss is temporary, that every rainy day is temporary, that every hardship is temporary. She used to tell me, ‘Son, every good-bye ain’t gone. Just hold on—there’s joy coming in the morning.'” —James Melvin Washington, late pastor and author
Leadership DevotionsCopyright © Tyndale House Publishers.Used by permission.
