Well, I’ve found a job I definitely don’t want. I just watched the demolition crew at work on the old narthex area. There are men with jackhammers, 40 feet in the air, breaking up the concrete under their feet. Now, as best I can tell, there is some scaffolding under the floor they are breaking up. But still. Watching the floor between my feet crumble would not be my idea of a good time.

My friend visited his child’s first grade classroom and heard all of the teacher’s plans and expectations for her new class. His comment as he left the room that day: "My son’s life as he has known it is over."

Transitions. We all make them. I wish they were all over when we got through first grade, but they never seem to end. At every age and stage of life, we are called upon to make a transition. We graduate, or retire, or stand at the graveside of a parent, spouse, sibling or friend. In a hundred ways we face situations where we can say that life as we have known it is over, and it feels like the ground beneath us is dropping away.

One scripture that I have found comforting in times of turmoil is from Psalm 31: "You, O Lord, are indeed my rock and my fortress...." The person who made it come alive was a friend who had what must be the most difficult experience anyone can ever face. He lost his son to death in a tragic auto accident. Several months after that, he cited Psalm 31, and said, "When you hit rock bottom, isn’t it good to know that at the bottom, there is a Rock."

I’m not sure I completely understand that kind of "Rock faith." Certainly my faith has not been tested as my friend’s tragedy tested his. But each one of us needs to know from time to time how to faithfully meet the challenges that come our way.

With prayer, with an eye for God’s work in the midst of life’s changes, and with a faith that puts one foot in front of the other into the future, we eventually find ourselves in a new place: on the other side of the turmoil.

Many things change. One does not: the fact that God is our rock that can be trusted when all else is crumbling concrete or shifting sand.

See you Sunday,