Skip to main content

He is with me - a reflection from Kelsi Drake

Recently, I was reading the story of when an angel of the Lord comes to Gideon and tells him that he is going to save the Israelites from the hands of Midian, whom they had been oppressed by after their own rebellion against God. The angel says to Gideon “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor. Gideon responds by answering “Please sir, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” (Judges 6) I thought about that interaction for days. At first, I thought it was Gideon’s boldness to immediately point out his disappointment and doubt when he encountered an angel of the Lord. However, after I reflected on it more, I realized this section stood out to me because I so often ask God the same question. “If you’re the good God I have heard about, and who I believe I follow, why is this happening?” Without wanting to admit it, I’d been asking God this question even over the past few weeks as I saw so much hurt, sadness, and brokenness surrounding me with COVID-19. Why would a good God allow so much pain? I don’t pretend to have the full answer to that question. I know there are aspects of God and His character that I am not going to understand this side of Heaven. I also know that The Bible tells us that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22) and that death and disease are a product of the Fall. However, I still feel the tension- why God? In the midst of this pandemic, I’ve been meditating on Psalm 23 along with so many of you. Verse 4 has been standing out to me and I’ve repeated it to myself over and over, even putting it up on our mantle as a daily reminder. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. When I feel confusion and chaos, this is something I can cling to- He is with me! While I don’t know what the future holds with this virus (or anything for that matter) or “why” it’s happening, I can rest in the fact that God sees me, he knows me, and he is with me. He is in the midst of our brokenness, our rebellion, and our pain. He is in the midst of COVID-19. While I don’t fully understand His ways, I know that he is with me. And He is good.

Kelsi and her husband, Stephen, have been members of Northside for six years, and she joined our staff team as the Director of Operations in summer 2019. She particularly loves how known and cared for she feels by those at NCR, and the way they have become dear family. 

Comments

  1. Thank you, Kelsi! This is so encouraging! I have likewise been encouraged this week by the very center of Psalm 23: "... You are with me..." the moment David changes from speaking the LORD's praises to others to speaking directly TO the LORD. It moves me how that displays David's overflowing emotions of love, praise, and gratitude about and towards the LORD. Praise God the He is a God who is WITH us, regardless of where we are! (Psalm 139, particularly verses 7 - 10)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Racism is sin. Let's treat it that way." by Sam Vaughn

Racism is sin . People are sinners. I am a person. I am a sinner. I am stained by the sin of racism. I commit the sin of racism. I omit the righteous deeds that undo and push back the sin of racism. I have stayed silent when it benefited me, rather than speaking when it would have benefited my brothers and sisters of color. I have defaulted to judgment rather than sorrow, when an unarmed Black person is shot to death. I remember when Michael Brown was shot and killed, watching the news coverage, the first thing I focused on was what he ‘must have done to cause it.’ I sought for a flaw in Michael Brown’s character as if that should be worthy of death. I engaged with other nationally covered events in a similar way. Embracing a narrative that made me comfortable was functionally more important to me than the God-given lives of image bearers like Eric Garner and Tamir Rice. I have been indifferent, and uncaring. Over the past year I have ignored the increase in violent hate crimes agains

Where do we go from here? - by Christine Bor

Where were you God? Why would He let that happen to someone He calls beloved? But He was there, because He doesn’t leave us even in the darkest corners of this world or in the darkest hour. He mourns the sanctity and blessedness of the life and breath of His Image Bearer, Ahmaud Aubery, alongside us. But where do we go from here? Do not be surprised as if White America is not capable of the modern day lynching of a black man. And if you are surprised, keep asking questions of yourself. The death of Ahmaud Arbery should stir up grief over the loss of sacred life and deep abiding anger over the lack of justice in our country for centuries to protect our brothers and sisters of color. And if it doesn’t, I implore you to open your eyes and hearts to see color, the color that God created us with, the color that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made to be. And I plead with you to not stop there. But instead, keep going. To understand the implications of race and to know that it

A Response to “Our Souls Cry Out” by Lukeythia Bastardi

Dear Tiffanie, One thing I want you (and others reading) to be sure to understand, and to hear as you read this, is that "you" also equals "yours," as in the entire AAPI Diaspora. One, among many wonderful shared cultural mores between Black and Asian people, is that we are a collective people. We use singular and plural personal pronouns interchangeably. That is how it ought to be as followers of Jesus, together adopted into his family, together sharing in his inheritance, and together breaking bread. You bring the chop sticks, I'll bring the hot sauce. My soul is (again) groaning, all the while knowing, That a change is gonna come. It will be missed by some. That "already to the not yet" time will be done. (That simple promise has kept my people from coming undone.) Our Lord Jesus will see to it, That your enemies (who because they are yours are also my enemies) Will get what He sees fit. Sister Chan, please know that y