Steadfast amidst the shuffle.

This past weekend was my birthday. One things I enjoy about my birthday is loot, the spoils of yet another year of life lived. One gracious gift that I received was an Apple I-Pod shuffle (pictured above). It was sweet because I had desired one but had been too cheap to buy it as of yet and now I don't have to worry about purchasing one.

For those of you who don't own a mac, haven't used I-Tunes and don't drive a new-body Volkswagen Beetle, let me 'splain to you what exactly a shuffle is. It is a portable audio player that is about the size of your pointer finger that can hold about a hundred songs. You simply just plug the shuffle into your computer to load the music (plugging the shuffle into the computer also charges the shuffle's battery). It has a lanyard that comes with it and is extremely lightweight- perfect for jogging or sitting by the fire in your living room and sipping some cocoa with your college chums.

The shuffle is adequately named because, by default, it randomizes the order of the song so that you never know what song you are going to hear next. (A fact that consternated me the other night as I was jogging and kept clicking through to find the perfect sprint-to-the-finish song.)

Sometimes I really enjoy the shuffle, but other times, I wonder who in their right mind would play these two songs next to each other.

Sometimes life can be just like the shuffle, or at least that is the way I believe my life is right now. I never know quite what to expect when I go into work. Somedays it is really intense and pressured and others are more kick back. Somedays I feel great and others, (like today) I feel like my head is in a vice. Relationships are up and down. I am here or there.

Lately I have been reading in the Psalms about David and it always seemed like his life was in the proverbial shuffle. He was the king of Israel and knew great victories some times and other times he was being hunted by people who wanted to take his life. Yet, in the midst of all of the randomization of life, David was happy. Why, you might ask? Well, in Psalm 17:7 David asks the Lord to "wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand."

David was able to be steadfast because he asked the Lord to show His steadfastness, in which David took refuge. David didn't believe the power to rise above his circumstances was his own. Listen to what he says in 18:27-30

"For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. For it is You who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God- His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him."

If you ever feel like your life is in a shuffle and you wonder why, realize who it is that is choosing the song order. We can take refuge in God because we know that He does what is best for us and not just what is easiest for us. James 1 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Friends, be steadfast.

B. Blakey