SWORDS OF IRON & NORTHERN ARROWS. (360).

NAHARIYA, ISRAEL. MONDAY. 30.9.2024

The Word & Ice Cream 

I sort of lost it today. My nerves got the best of me and I felt anxious.

I knew that the constant noise of the airplanes, the lack of sleep, the very loud booms of the Navy diverting the rockets away from us, and the sirens, were more than enough. It is almost a year – we are on the last day of September, and the 7^th of October is only 7 days away. So I've had enough.

The sirens came often in the last few days. And while I tried to keep my thoughts busy with a new health business adventure, I could not calm them down. I did not feel afraid, just annoyed. My body started to feel much pain, from the stress; my eyes turned red and hurting; my head was getting confused from the constant noise, and my blood pressure was elevated from sleepless nights.

I was looking at the immediate, and it drew me into the downward spiral of the present while I should have looked at the eternal.

But friends prayed for us. I know they did. They prayed for us from everywhere in the world. I felt these prayers. Enemies leaders in the neighbouring countries were eliminated, and some of our soldiers came home on a needed recovery.

I felt far from God. I walked inside my apartment like a caged lion, back and forth from the bedroom to the kitchen, opening the fridge as often as a teenager would, looking for what – I didn't- know, something comforting. Willie went downstairs to the corner store to buy chocolate and ice cream cones between sirens. Comfort food.

Then I remembered. Our fridge is full. Although food prices escalated, we can still afford to buy fruits, vegetables and meats, all available at the local supermarkets. We have a strong roof over our heads; yes, we need to run 80 stairs down to the shelter and we cannot, so we stay at home. But, the rockets and the not-men-air crafts are diverted by the Navy, Army and Air Force, so we stay on the south side of the flat. 

 At least two of our congregation leaders offered us again a shelter in Haifa for the duration of the war, where there are safe rooms. The cat runs under the bed, but she has plenty of food and water and is safe indoors.

God put us in Nahariya. We are here to be an example of the love of God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We do not abandon this post. God does not abandon His people. We stay here to pray, to encourage, to check on the neighbourhood and to share His mercy and love with them.

Willie went to his volunteering post at the hospital and I forced my body to shower and move about and function. When he returned we prayed. We tried to rest between sirens, and then we prayed some more. Toward the evening, he read Psalm 90 out loud. He read it again, and I felt the peace of God flowing through my veins. Calm settled on my heart; the pain subsided, and I was able to enter a Zoom prayer meeting.

It is past my bedtime. But God did not abandon me. He is here. Life goes on.

(Psalm 90) A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down and withers.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.
8 You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

13 Return, O Lord! How long?
And have compassion on Your servants.
14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.