Rip Tides

   Our beach has been the scene of some bad rip tides over the past couple of weeks. I thought of this danger as I read this morning.

   69:1 Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.2 I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
   These are the words from David in Psalm 69 as he is in torment because of some actions of those who do not like him. His life has felt like he was in that rip tide, and he saw no hope in his situation. He cried out to God, in this Psalm, to save him out of this spot, but then he puts a timetable on this salvation in verse 13. It reads:

  13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
   In my mind I translate "acceptable time" as a time when God will act in David's case. Of course he would like it to be sooner rather than later, but it is God's time that is important not his.

   The rip tides are a danger to swimmers at the beach, but my attitude toward my times can be a real snare to me as well. Do I look at my life as mine or as God's? Do I  consider what I have done with my time in the past, or my future time to be in my hands or God's? Am I willing to acknowledge that my times are His and not mine?

   When I treat time as mine to do what I want to, do I dishonor God? Do I even think about it?

   I say with the psalmist in Psalm 31, "My times are in Your hands", but are these just words or a conviction? The passage is true, so I need to live that way.

   Oh, God, don't let the rip tides of my selfishness define my life. Let my times be truly Yours.

   Amen