I’ve not heard anything about the plague of locusts in East
Africa for awhile. Even googling it brings only news of the disaster from last
summer. I hope this means it is over: if so, it illustrates how much more ready
we are to talk about and print bad news than we are good news. Or maybe it’s
just that there is so much bad news out there, there hasn’t been breath to talk
about a plague of locusts in Africa.
Swarms of locusts can plague our minds and eat the nutritious
and life-giving thoughts which struggle to take root. Today the locusts arrive
on two waves in my mind. One very personal: a forty-minute stint in the dentist’s
chair with an uncertain outcome. At nearly the same time, one very global
situation: the inauguration of President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect
Harris. I hear rumours of disruption and violence planned against the peaceful
handover, and my excitement is dulled by fear.
And then I read Amos 5:24: Let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream! Praying that over all nations of the
world this morning, especially the USA. I also read Psalm 62: My soul finds
rest in God alone…he is my fortress; I shall never be shaken. As I sit under
the dentist’s drill later today, I will meditate on this psalm.
Swarms of locusts – in nature and in thought – are real. I
pray that the plague has left Africa now. I also pray that God will help me to protect
the creative, nourishing thoughts he is germinating in my mind, from the ravages
of mind locusts. Anyone else vulnerable to such assaults on inner peace?
Praying for you, too.
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