Psalm 23:4
Good News Translation (GNT)
4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be
afraid, Lord, for you are
with me.
It was four o’clock in the morning. I tossed and turned. My
mind started toiling through a long list of recent setbacks.
Our faithful, gas-guzzling pickup had just done a seven
thousand mile trip. Now suddenly on the last fill-up, its mileage had dropped
to a third of what it had been on the trip. We had double checked the
calculations. Google told us this happened to other owners, and they had a
terrible time finding out the cause. One had even replaced the engine, to no
avail.
Our water main had broken and we had been without water for
twenty-four hours. Our neighbors let us take showers in their home, bless their
caring hearts. I had spent the whole day repairing it, and now the sprinkler
system wouldn’t work. The temperatures were in the hundreds, and the trees and
plants were starting to seriously wilt from lack of water.
The Internet and phone company had spent four days doing a “simple”
upgrade, and still neither the phone nor the Internet worked. Since our home is
up a little valley, even our cell phones don’t work unless the Internet works
or we go outside and stand in the middle of the street to make a call. So we were
thrust back into the nineteenth century reliance solely on the post office for
our communications.
Katie, our beloved one-year-old, still-chewing-everything puppy
just chewed up Sylvia’s C-PAP breathing apparatus. The insurance company tells
us we can’t get a replacement for at least another month. When I walked Katie
in the hills in front of our home, a young coyote was walking shoulder against
shoulder with her trying to coax her back to the pack and the kill. Katie wasn’t
sure whether she should go with her new “friend” or come back to me.
While we were on our trip mentioned above, our son Fred
phoned us to tell us he was engaged to Uni, a lovely girl he has been dating on
and off for a number of years. Then he phoned us to tell us they are getting
married later this month. They plan to meet in Oregon and see the August
eclipse and invited Sylvia and me to go with them. I am eager to see the
eclipse and even more eager to be with Fred on the trip. But I’m also still
recovering from my battle with West Nile Virus. I seemed to lose some ground on
our 7,000 mile trip in which we took everything very easy, so I fear a rush
trip of 2,000 miles may set me back even more.
A smiling doggy face and furniture-beating tail greets me as
I roll out of bed at six o’clock. I happen to read our familiar and much
beloved Shepherd Psalm. I reread verse 4, and peace covers over my many
concerns. My Lord is still with me.
Thank You, Lord, that
I can rely on You to solve my problems as You have so frequently in the past!
