Choosing Thankfulness?

I hate time changes. It is one thing if you are travelling, but it is something completely different if you are at home and out of the blue your whole schedule changes. All this to say, for the second day in a row, I woke up at 4:30am, and there is no way I can go back to sleep. I finally just gave up and curled up in my chair with a cup of coffee.

I guess some good is coming out of my early morning wake up. I am actually taking some uninterrupted time to read and pray. Unfortunately, that seems like a rarity for me these days. Here's the Bible passage that caught my eye this morning.

Psalm 8 (NIV)

1. How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
   How long will you hide your face from me?


2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
   and every day have sorrow in my heart?
   How long will my enemy triumph over me?


3. Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;


4. my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
   and my foes will rejoice when I fall.


5. But I trust in your unfailing love;
   my heart rejoices in your salvation.


6. I will sing to the LORD,
   for he has been good to me.

(I'm going to share my personal thoughts on this passage and why I connect with it this morning. However, this is purely devotional and not by any means an exegetical study of this passage)

This is not one of the passages that most people talk about a lot, but somehow it seems to resonate with my heart this morning. Right now, I can relate to David in the first few verses. How long am I going to have to struggle? How long will I feel distant from the Lord? How long will I have to wrestle with my thoughts and deal with the sorrow in my heart?

I don't connect with the next couple of verses as much because I can't really think of any foes that are bothering me, unless you consider a particular sin a foe that is trying to overcome me.

I think the last two verses are why this passage really stood out to me this morning. Despite the fact that David felt far away from God and was wrestling with his thoughts, sorrows and enemies, he chose to trust in God's unfailing love and even came to the point of singing thankfully to the Lord for all of the good things things in his life.

Here are the questions that have been plaguing me this morning. How did David and his writing go from a place of complaining about feeling far away from the Lord and being overcome by enemies to a place of trusting and praising God in just a few verses? Was it just a mental decision? Did he just decide that despite his feelings he was just going to choose to trust God and be thankful for salvation and the good things in his life? Did his perspective, perception of God and feelings change just by choosing to trust God's love and choosing to be thankful?

I am not completely sure our struggle with distance from God and sorrow can completely change just by choosing trust and thankfulness, but I think it warrants some further consideration. This passage has caused me to want to try an experiment over the next few days. Each time I complain (in my heart and mind) about feeling far from God, overcome by sorrow or sorry for myself, I will try to choose to be thankful for the good things God has given me in my life. Maybe it is a bit of a simplistic application of this passage, but I am hoping that choosing to thankfulness and trust will change my current perspective on the nearness of God.

I'll keep you posted on the result.