Challenging Thought for Today:   Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:7 (NIV)

“Did you get a blessing?” The receptionist in the Intensive Care Unit Family Waiting Room asked this as she held up a small basket filled with tiny strips of folded paper. I smiled politely, reached for one and took it back to my seat to read. My husband was upstairs having open heart surgery, a triple bypass. Family and friends would come to the hospital later, but in those moments during and immediately following the surgery, I felt very alone. Until I read my blessing. “Focus on God’s presence in the present.” Seven simple, yet powerful words leapt off that paper straight into my heart.  They not only encouraged me during that difficult time but also still blesses and sustains me all these years later.

Amazingly, in the midst of that medical situation with my husband, God allowed me to show his presence to someone facing an even more dire crisis. I saw her a few days later sitting alone at one of the corner tables in the waiting room, weeping openly. “Are you alright?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question but I asked anyway. I knew she wasn’t. I asked to open the door to offer a prayer and share a blessing; she welcomed both.

I was encouraged further as I studied bible notes on the challenging thought for today verse from the Psalms. They are another reminder that God is always with us in all situations, no matter what the present or future brings. In addition to the triple bypass surgery, that two-week “present” season brought gall bladder surgery and a stroke for my husband. For the woman in the waiting room, it brought lung cancer realities for hers. My presence in the waiting room with her allowed us to share an “alone” moment together. God’s presence allowed us to share his peace. It didn’t change our circumstances, but it certainly changed our focus and we both felt less alone.

Friends, there may be circumstances in your “present” that are threating to take your focus off of His presence. Don’t let them. David reminds us in Psalm 23:4 that in times of danger, difficulty, or even death, we don’t have to be afraid because God is yet with us. Many times over the last few years, I have thought of the words of that little blessing and remembered that Psalm 138 both asks and answers the question, “Where shall I go from your presence?” There is nowhere life can take us that the grace of God can’t reach us. Seven blessed words are a permanent part of my life now. Why not make them a part of yours?

Focus on His presence in your present.

Be Blessed,

Shelia