In the Midst

 The new year has come.  The calendar flipped.  As this year unfolds – so far a day that dawned and a sun set, one day completed – many are looking forward with anticipation, relief, breath released to a year that will hold answers, change, happiness, calm, justice… normalcy.

Truth is… nothing has magically changed.  We are still “in the midst”.

In the thick of …

In the throes of…

Surrounded, beset, hemmed in, besieged, overrun.

I think each of us knows this place – “in the midst” - personally; perhaps all too well as we consider this past year.

2020

Each of us have been in the thick of what life brought to our path.  We have been overrun by “unprecedented times” -   a pandemic that brought with it financial struggles and ruin, fear, anxiety, illness, isolation, loss, mourning, hopelessness, stress, depression.  We have been besieged by division, unrest, injustice, “passionate protest” violence, vandalism, destruction, frustration, anger, hatred, anarchy, terrorism.  We have been surrounded by unforeseen occurrences of natural disasters – fires with hazardous air quality indexes, personal losses and loss of entire communities. Occurring throughout all of this, each find themselves in the throes of their own life – loss, health, relationships, children, family, job or other.  All of which finds our very being “in the midst” of exhaustion, at wit’s end, weakened and aching physically, emotionally and spiritually.

January 1^st finds us still standing beset by many of the same circumstance looking for recovery.  Hardly a realistic and maybe even a harmful expectation.  These events, this time, the experiences… they are not our cause of discontent that somehow if not experienced would have allowed us to all live happily, fulfilled and normal.  It is not solely the experiences of 2020 which truly determine the quality, the direction and impact of our lives but rather our response.  We don’t “get over” this 2020 experiential chaos.  There are no solutions.  There is a journey –life.   We will always be “in the midst” of it.  

 

Here’s the thing…– “in the midst” of all 2020 had and all 2021 may have – we are able to have Joy and peace; we find rest and renew strength.   Our power to revel in hope, peace and JOY rests is within our grasp because of the ONE who loves us.

“May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

We experience peace and joy ‘in the midst’ of chaos that brings the answers, the stability and the security we so desperately need.   

I am reminded of Corrie Ten Boom who lived ‘in the midst’ of the worst this world has seen.  “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.  If you look within you’ll be depressed.  But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”

We may feel overwhelmed and often alone ‘in the midst’.  But looking to our God, we find He is in our midst.  “The Lord you God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.”(Zephaniah 3:17)

It is my prayer that you daily have hope, joy and peace in 'in the midst' .

 

Psalm 139 “Where can I go from Thy spirit?  Where can I hide from thy presence?  Even the darkness is not dark to you and the night is as bright as the day.”

Isaiah 40:31 “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint”.

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.   Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 146:5 “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”