reorientation

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4-5)

Over the past few months, full of change and transition, the Psalms have been a dear friend and a close companion.  They have given me words and images for prayer that speak both to my heart and for my heart; especially at times when, for some reason, I was unable to come up with words of my own.  They have been my prayer book, literally offering me prayers for all seasons.  And it, indeed, has been an interesting season; one in which I have needed and treasured their companionship.  I had a seminary professor once tell me that the Psalms could be broken down in three very general categories—psalms of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation—which would seem to cover just about all the bases.  Therefore, whether I find myself, as I did several months ago, in the desert of disorientation due to life’s chaos and circumstances, or find myself being slowly led back into the garden of reorientation (a new way of seeing and being), which seems to describe my current season, the Psalms offer me a place and a language to meet my God in the midst of it all…and I am so grateful.