More than conquerors

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. – Romans 8:37
      
Friday, April 19, 2013
   
As I sit to write my column this morning, much is happening in the country.
      
An intensive manhunt is under way in Watertown, Mass., for the second suspect in Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon. I can’t forget the picture of the 8-year-old who was killed waiting for his father to cross the finish line. A lump lodges in my throat and tears blur my vision. That boy reminded me of my own grandson. I feel as though I’ve been stabbed in the heart.
      
Residents of West, Texas, sift through what remains of their small town after an explosion at a fertilizer plant Wednesday destroyed both life and property. “Part of that community is gone,” one official said. For the past month, devastating snowstorms have besieged the middle of the country, an unusual weather pattern for this time of the year. An unstable economy and a government getting too big for its britches give cause for concern for the future of this nation, once the most powerful in the world. 
      
I sit down to pray, and all I can find to say is “Lord, my country is a mess.” I feel so inadequate.
      
I want to write about cleaning my house when the sun was shining, and how the windows sparkled and how fresh the house smelled after Dean put a coat of polyurethane on the bookcases and I tackled the winter dust. How exhilarating it was to open the windows and let the spring breeze breathe its freshness through the rooms.  
      
I want to write about the greening grass, the dancing daffodils, the courageous crocuses. I want to tell you about my grandson’s white bunny that’s taken up residence in our pine trees, the deer and turkeys I watch through the field glasses, and the goldfinches, woodpeckers and cardinals that are regulars at the bird feeder hanging from the budding maple tree in the front yard.
      
I want to tell you that I bought all the seeds for the garden this week, and I can hardly wait until we plant them. I want to write about researching how to battle those darn stink bugs that decimated my tomato and pepper plants last year.
      
But instead my mind wraps around shattered lives and reeling communities and how unstable life really is.
      
If it wasn’t for God, I’d feel hopeless.
      
His Word tells me the world has been in a mess since Adam and Eve first decided they wanted what they wanted more than they wanted God. But it also says that God loved us so much He sent His only Son to help us out of the mess (John 3:16).
      
His Word is filled with promises I know He’ll keep, because God is faithful, even when we aren’t. His Word tells me that nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from God’s love. And no matter what life throws at us, we are more than conquerors because that steadfast love for us extends to the heavens and His faithfulness to the clouds (Psalm 36:5).
      
Yes, the country is a mess. The world is a mess. But God isn’t. He’s still in control. And He still hears the prayers of the faithful.
        
Help me, Lord, to be faithful in praying for my country. Amen.

Special-Tea: Read Romans 8