Today's passage is Ps.37:21-40.
David says that though the wicked seem to flourish they will be cut off, but the Lord will save the faithful who wait for him and take refuge in him.
When I look in the mirror, I see an old face.
Lines cut across my forehead and my cheeks sag.
Lines criss-cross around my eyes but my eyes themselves look just the way they have since I was a child.
Young eyes look out of my old face. I carry my youth with me.
It is early in the morning right now and dark. I am in a moslem country.
From the tower of a near by mosque the loudspeaker blares the call to prayer.
When it stops I can hear the birds announcing the coming dawn.
Soon the sun will rise on a new day.
I am doing my QT looking into the dark, waiting for the Lord, wanting to keep his way, hoping I will but knowing I won't because the wicked in me will cut me off and I will sin.
The experience of my old age tells me how I might stumble today.
My young eyes will linger on a pretty girl.
Because my academic conference is in a resort hotel, I will think how nice it would be to live in such luxurious circumstances with people to clean my room and make my bed and serve me all manner of delicious food.
I will spend time organizing what needs to be done in my school and my pride will push my thoughts into the glory of magnificent achievement.
I will recall the bragging of bigger, older schools yesterday and about how well they prepare their students and what awards they have garnered and I will freshly resent them and wish them bigger problems than I face.
Once again I will childishly want to run away from the issues of my family that arrive via email. I will chafe at having to answer a dozen emails from my school about this thing and that thing.
But now the sky lightens and I can see the hills and the sea and the outlines of the trees nearby. The birds grow louder and a few fly by.
The day is coming and only in the Lord will I be ready.
His promise of upholding me and not letting my feet slip and of being my stronghold and refuge gives me courage.
Lord, make me ready for this day. Keep your word in my heart and mind.
Let me trust in you, not in myself. Protect me from the temptations of the world and the tendency to think well of myself.
Let me be humble this day and meet you wherever I turn.
