What can I reach? ...

Friday Jan 30, 2015. Sometimes it can be good to be challenged. I think about being challenged with our life style, with our thoughts, with the assumptions on which we act and live day by day. This morning, I stumbled over psalm 127, which touches this question: what is it my life is built on, what is it that makes me succeed? Let us read from Psalm 127:

Face Reality …

1 A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127)

Can we control our fate by being eager to work? Can we help things by doing? Can we change the world by our engagement? What is it that the psalm tells us?

Let us first clarify an important point in these verses: the builders are still important, since they build the house. The watchman ist still important, since he is a key part in the watching process. Your work will still be an important part of what is happening in your life!

Not without the Lord! …

The first point here is that our efforts are good, but not sufficient to reach something. We can put all the work and effort of the world in, and reach nothing. All of us know the feeling of frustration, if we work hard and do not succeed. Even when we are talented, we might go vain! Only if the Lord works with us, we get where we want to get.

But this verses go much beyond a pure support for our own efforts. It even turns the things around: the Lord gives to his beloved sleep. It is not our work, which is needed. It is just him.

I think the psalm is an invitation to get our view straight. It is an invitation to turn to the Lord with our activities, with all we do. Our life can be a life which is in complete accordance with him, in deep unity and community with father, son and holy spirit. This is about everything, about our job, about our house, our family, our leisure time.

As humans, we tend to try our own ways. And we are individuals, we are wanted by the Lord with our individuality, with our special skills and wishes and preferences. Yet, we are made to live with him, to find community with the eternal, to learn from him, to love him, to be loved by him. (RWEP) ... more texts