“With your rod and your staff, you give me courage.”
For most of my life I have been “the strong one” – smart, entrepreneurial, willing to risk, and all making it look like I know what I am doing. The fact is that most of the time I am “flying by the seat of my pants.” Many times I can feel like I am out there all alone. It also leads to a pattern where it seems to me that everyone looks to me for an answer or a solution, so when I am vulnerable, it makes it hard for me to find support in others. It’s hard to ask for help and support, and even when I do, people often look at me quizzically like they don’t know what to do since I was more often their “go to” guy.
The image of strength I see in this passage and the phrase I quote is reassuring to me. Even when I feel out there and alone, I can turn to God for the strength and the courage I lack. The grace I desire today is to be able to be more vulnerable in the eyes of others and to be able more easily to reach out to others when I feel weak.
“Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life.” (sigh)
— based on Psalm 23
Source: Rector’s Blog