tuesday of the fourth week in lent

Date:  March 29
Lectionary Link:  https://www.lectionarypage.net/WeekdaysOfLent/TuesdayFourthWeek.html
Contributor:  Marilyn Baldwin
 
I was assigned this day for a meditation, and was happy to see that the lectionary for the day includes one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 46. I remember as I was first working in a pastoral setting in seminary being told to memorize a favorite psalm, and to pray it as I made my way to a bedside or home visit.  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…,” I would begin as I neared my destination. Like any good meditation, it never fails to calm me and help me remember that there is nowhere that God is not, and nothing that God can’t do.  It’s not about my gifts, but about God’s power, and that I am simply the messenger sent to share God’s peace and care.
 
It seems like a mantra for the world these days, as we (hopefully) come out of two years of a world pandemic, only to see the suffering, death, and destruction occurring in Ukraine, and the mass exodus of millions of people into other countries. What can I do? What can we do? We can pray, we can help any number of charities on the ground in Eastern Europe. We can seek the mind of God, knowing that love alone can overcome hatred and even war. Only then can we begin to understand that “The Lord  of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”