Thursday, May 13

From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I...
—Psalm 61:2

It streaks through our body like a frigid wind on a winter morning. On the one hand we desperately try to deny its reality, and on the other, we are frantic to do all that we can to ensure that what we fear most does not become real.

The fear and pain are too great when our heart is broken, tested, cracked—left in utter despair. When our heart is overwhelmed, we feel like a rocky shoreline over which tempestuous and uncontrollable waves swell and crash. We feel ourselves sinking—left gasping for the breath of life.

As horrible as such a situation is, it is perhaps the easiest time to pray. Prayer comes naturally—it is the only sound that our broken souls seem capable of making. 

We don’t think about the prayer, we don’t think about whether it will be heard, we don’t try to craft it in fine language, we aren’t obsessed with our unworthiness. We simply cry out—in words simple and true—from wherever we are.

In that moment, we finally understand that we are not God, and we give ourselves to the One who is God. In that moment when earth and heaven meet, we take a fresh breath of life.

O God, when the bottom of my world falls out, let me fall into the safety of your arms.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.