Unsteady Change

I woke up the other morning with this phrase in my head: Unsteady Change. Right now, our world is as unsteady as ever. We seem to be in a battle. Our health system is being stretched, countries in Europe are even more challenged. We are told to isolate in our homes.

Unsteady change reminds me of my last climb up a mountain six years ago. Mt. St. Helens is full of large rocks and endless sand. Climbing up is a challenge, but rather fun with the anticipation of arriving at the summit and the fabulous view of the crater like no other. Coming down is a different story. Your legs are tired. Muscles wobbly as you plunge step down the sandy portion to the rocky section. You must walk carefully and select the right rock that won’t tip and cause you to lose your balance. The rocks are not forgiving if you fall on them.

Today and the days to come are unsteady and unpredictable. We don’t know the future. We hope our country will recover and the stock market will climb again and we’ll be able to return to our jobs. School will resume and we will return to a more normal schedule. But we don’t know….It isn’t predictable.

One thing we can know is our God is rock solid. As I began writing today, a song rang through my head written by a pastor and hymn writer in England in the 18th century. He wrote only one hymn but it’s a good one:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

A few summers ago, we were hiking in the Mt Hood Wilderness area and came across this huge rock. I wish I’d taken the photo with someone in front of it so you can see how large it really was. Our solid Rock–Jesus is much bigger.