It is Wednesday, April 3, 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is in Memphis, Tennessee to participate in the Memphis sanitation workers strike. He is scheduled to speak at Bishop Charles Mason Temple. King is exhausted, and fighting a sore throat and fever. Initially he decides not to give his speech, but then reconsiders and arrives to a standing ovation.
Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Isaiah 45:15
If God loves me, he is going to "show up," right? Maybe not! In fact, it is God's absence that may reveal his love more than his presence.
"I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle." - John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
I am a journal person. While I am not quite convinced the world can be divided into those who put pen to paper and those who do not, I belong to that cohort who record things: dates, thoughts, miles walked (1043.2 last year), lessons learned, ideas untried, frustrations encountered, prayers offered, victories claimed...You get the picture.
Opening my journal to you is scary business. It is cracking the door to my heart. Peer in and you will find that my heart is not always in a stable state. Today I am going to take that risk. I have David and the rest of the psalmists as my models for this. That moody bunch was not afraid to "tell it like it is." Such times may have revealed their frailty, but it also magnified God's glory. I hope to do the same.
