My Faith and Praise ...

Friday, April 3, 2020. When you are surrounded by difficulties, how to you make sure your metal health is sustained? How do we cope with the challenges which we face?

Difficult situations are common. They come to all people - what ever our status, our situation, our framework. You can be king, and yet be challenged strongly by loneliness, by power struggle around you, by the burden of responsibility. You can be ill, not able to work properly, dependent on social benefit. How do you cope with it? You can be a normal person, with some technical job, with kids growing up. There are many things to do, with the challenges of kids in school or training, with financial questions, with your particular job situation.

Let us discuss what role faith can play in all our challenges!

Tools and Reality …

Last night I watched a Christian film about Jesus and his disciples. He called them to follow him - and his faith and all what happened around him gave them the environment and motivation to take steps of faith themselves. They even trusted their life into his hands, and became disciples of Jesus.

It can be good to look beyond your current situation, beyond all the challenges and difficulties. The psalms of praise can be a tool to widen yor awareness of things beyond the valey you are in. They look into reality, HIS reality, which can also be your reality, since he is God. Listen:

1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! 2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! 3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! (Psalm 148, 1ff)

God is the Lord above all. He is in the sky, but also in the depth of the earth. He is close to all, to any one of us. His angels and all his hosts are many. The sun and the moon, all the stars are his.

The sun and moon, the stars, the angels and his hosts … this talks about actual suns and planets, about real spiritual beings. But we can also see a figurative dimension of these words. The sun and the moon and the stars are the elements of our life, people or institutions or situations, which seem to be overwhelming. They seem to be strong and in power, but yet they are only created by him. They are under control by his hosts. The challenges of our life are - finally - under his control!

No Solution and yet some Solution …

Sometimes we cannot resolve a difficult situation. We are bound to it. We do not see any change, any solution, any hope to get out of it. Yes, there are these situations. Yes, there are many of such situations humans can be trapped in. We can think and be creative to try to find solution. But it is not always possible to find a path out of it right now. There are many challenges which go beyond our individual power and creativity and limits.

When there is no solution, praise might be some solution. When we are completely bound to our limits, fully put into a situation where nothing works any more the way we want it to work, we can still look up to him and realize how wonderful he is. There is light, which shines into our darkness!

I do not say that praise is a tool which would be able to replace creativity, reason or science - not at all. But it still can change our situation, our mental situation. We look to God. We look into a reality which is wider and deeper than our pain. We look beyond. And when we see his light, when we let it reach our heart and mind, it HAS power. The struggle we are in is under his control, so are the storms, so is the sun and the stars. He will command them his way when his time has come, and is alreadz doing it now. (Roland Potthast)