Let go of the Shadows + Look to Your Shepherd | Psalm 23
If your life were a movie, what kind of movie would it be? A comedy, thriller, rom-com, sci-fi, horror or drama? We live in a culture of storytelling. We love movies because they provide us some emotional and mental relief from the stress and anxieties of life. For most of us, our lives are more like an epic drama. Our lives are more like the Lord of the Rings than Talladega Nights or the Notebook or Shallow Hal. Those rom coms that are shown around the holidays on Hallmark channel offer us the same story: there’s a little conflict, everyone lives without dangers and the guy always gets the girl. But real life is different than the Hallmark Channel. Life is a series of highs and lows; it is a journey through challenges, hardships and at times despair. It can bring you the greatest joy but also the deepest sorrows. But for followers of Jesus, suffering is not our final future, we have a Shepherd to leads us to an unimaginable future, where everything sad, every hurt, every pain, every loss, every challenge is somehow redeemed through His life, death and resurrection.
Psalm 23 is the personal testimony of David, a man who learned to be CALM during stress and difficulty. He lived life as a fugitive, having his wife leave him, friends betray him, losing multiple children, and having people try to cancel him. Despite all the difficulties in his life, he knew who his Shepherd. He knew that His Shepherd was with Him, had gone before Him and was good to Him regardless of how good David was. David teaches us that we can be calm in life when we let go of the shadows and look to our Shepherd.