Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, January 27, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
There was a time in my life when I felt abandoned by God. The summer of 2004 was awful—if it could go wrong, it did. I was in a lot of pain and so were people around me. In my grief, I turned to food in order to numb the feelings I couldn’t seem to handle, and developed a full-blown addiction.
When I got into recovery, I realized it wasn’t God who had abandoned me. I was the one who had abandoned God. I was trying to control the uncontrollable circumstances of my life, and hurting myself and others in the process. I was acting as though there was no God, or at the very least, God was occupied with more important things.
Throughout all of it, God was there. Even though I had turned my back on God, I was never away from God’s presence. As the psalmist asks, where could I have gone from God’s spirit? Where could I have fled from God’s presence? No matter how I tried to cut myself off, God still held me until I was ready to come to my senses. I am so grateful to have a God who never gives up on me.
When have I tried to flee from God’s presence? What was the result?