Salm 121

Last night a friend asked me the following question: where does your help come from when things go wrong? Immediately Psalm 121(verses 1-2) came to my mind: I lift up my eyes to the mountains- where does my help come from? My help comes from God, the Maker of heaven and earth.  

I told my friend that in my relationship with God I have understood few things. One is that God did not give me the problems. Another is that problems - especially personal ones - sometimes arise from stupid decisions we made; therefore, we are now living the consequences. Another source of the problems is that there are bad people and they are being annoying other people's lives. In a more collective social analysis, we can say that problems can come because we create relationships of exploitation, inequality and injustice. I also told my friend that I am not one of those who believe that things had to happen for some reason, much less that God is testing me. There are many things that should not happen, and God is love. 

In short, most of the time we have no idea from where our personal problems are coming. Maybe we try to solve them systematically, maybe we turn to others for help, or maybe we just run away from them. For this reason, I have the habit of first looking for strength in God before going out to find solutions to my problems.

When we go back to Psalm 121, we become aware that God is bigger than our problems and that our help comes from Him (or Her) the Maker of heaven and earth.  At least it works for me. Why don't you try?

Blessings

Fr. Luis