Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, June 13, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Sometimes God doesn’t fix it, but instead sits with us through it.
“How long, O Lord!” It is the plea of someone that has been suffering too long. How long is too long? There’s no one answer to that. But it is a common human experience that suffering slows our sense of the passage of time. Most of us know the despair that comes at 3:00am when the world is quiet and dark, and the unbearable pain seems like it will never end.
Most of us also know the experience of abandonment we may feel. The isolation and loneliness in those moments may not be quelled by the knowledge that a loving God walks with us. Instead, it can seem that God has left us. If God was still there, we would not still hurt. If God had fixed it, we would be healed and whole.
But God doesn’t only work that way. Sometimes God doesn’t fix it. But God is always there. When we don’t feel God’s presence, it’s because our grief, anger, fear, and pain stifle our ability to sense God. But it is God’s presence that keeps us moving forward, even when it’s only one slow breath at a time. It’s God that makes the clock continue to tick, even when it seems a snail’s pace. It’s God that shines the sun on us when the long night finally ends. It’s God that gives us fresh eyes to see that suffering is not going to have the final say. God gives us space and ability to say, “I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me,” even when it is hard to believe. Because one day we will believe it again.
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
