Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Ps. 42:11)
MY SISTER AND I grew weary carrying the heavy burden of our aging, alcoholic brother, the added threat of his heroin-addicted girlfriend, and our aging father who was enabling them both. This trio filled our days with insanity like Katrina’s floodwaters filled the city of New Orleans.
Although futile, we attempted to derail our father’s enabling of their addictions. Our brother’s girlfriend loathed both of us for intervening in this vicious cycle. It made her furious.
“I can have them taken care of!” she said with the confidence of a lion.
Her acrid words struck like a bomb exploding in the pit of my stomach. Like shrapnel, a range of emotions pierced my heart and soul. I experienced anger and fear of an addict’s vengeful, deranged mind, and I sank low into sorrow over the grievous depths of despair to which my precious family had fallen.
Life challenges caused the psalmist to feel downcast and disturbed, too. As a triple cure for grief, he repeated the admonition above verbatim, two more times in Psalm 42:5 and 43:5. It may have taken a tad more than three sessions of praise for him, but while remembering our Savior and our God, I survived the storm unscathed.
Amid the circumstances and strife of daily life, let’s remember the God of the universe, in whom we find our hope and salvation.
Remind a downcast friend about your Savior and your God.
Susan Browning Schulz is a wife and active mom of three grown children. She lives riverside in northwest Georgia and loves leading her small group.
