Life-lines and a Truckled Soul

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. The sequel to One Smooth Stone will be released in 2011Visit her website at www.vinemarc.com

I’m sure all of us have been stunned to silence at the devastation and fear overwhelming Japan. As my husband and I watched some of the news footage we couldn’t help but use the word “apocalyptic.” It is at times like these that I feel a deep urgency to break the silence that lies heavily upon me. It is at times like these that the world needs words of hope and healing. Words like “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4), and these – “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” (Isaiah 43:2). The people of the world need to know that God says - “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future.” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Words like those can be a life-line to those in dire situations. We should never underestimate the power of God’s word nor doubt that He is in control.Neither should we underestimate what He might do with our words, our skills. He has given them to us for a purpose and for a particular time. Sometimes we may doubt them, doubt our own abilities, but there is nothing God cannot do with a truckled soul.

As I watched The King’s Speech recently that truth hit home again. It was no accident that the King’s wife found just the right man to help her husband; no accident that his brother abdicated, putting him on the throne just as Hitler began his march across Europe; no accident that another man, Winston Churchill, also deemed to be “less than” by many, became Prime Minister of England at that same time. My husband commented how Hitler and Satan must have been rubbing their hands in glee as they watched what was happening in England. They must have thought victory was in the bag. Yet Satan’s plans were being foiled by God’s at every turn and, as usual, he used the most unlikely of heroes.

There is one scene in The King’s Speech that exemplified this fact. The King and his family have gathered to watch the newsreel of his coronation. As they are about to finish, the newsreel continues and shows Adolph Hitler giving a speech. One of the King’s daughters asks what Hitler is saying. The King replies, “I don’t know, but he is saying it very well.”

Bertie’s self doubt plagued him, yet he moved forward, accepted the role God had placed on his life and struggled to do it well. He was God’s man, God’s choice, with all his flaws and failings and it was God who accomplished his plans through him.
As a follower of Christ, with many flaws and failings, I take great courage in that. As a writer who is Christian I rejoice in it.

Ps 121:5-8 5 - The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; he shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. (NKJ)