Psalm 103 in a day

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It was 109 degrees today and I left my car windows open all day, the swirling Texas dust settling a fine layer on my dashboard. I swept a finger across it before I started my car and thought of the exchanges we make: cooler car with dusty dashboard or stuffy car with clean dashboard? Dust is only the stuff of earth in finest particles. It is the remnants of another generation's treasures. Now it is nothing a wet cloth won't fix.

For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

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Tonight is Elder Led Prayer at my church. It's the night of the month when communion is messy, all of us crowding to the front to dip our bread in wine, brushing up against the body of Christ in more ways than one. We worship long and loud and pray without ceasing. It is my church. I go to a large church with multiple services, but the first Wednesday of the month, these people, all of them, they're mine. I know these faces and love them. I am alive here.

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field

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"How long is this going to go on?" I ask her. She shakes her head. How can any of us know how long a darkened tunnel is or where the end will be? There is no way out but through it, though, and so we chug forward, praying for a break of light soon. We are vapors, here today, gone tonight, but the seasons of our vapors pass faster still. I have to remember this when struggles seem to last an eternity.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

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I read a story once of a woman who feared the Lord. I don't remember much of the story except that she feared Him and I do not know many who do. I don't. He is my friend, my savior, my Father, my Lord—but do I fear Him? I find myself so pleased with today's treasures, tomorrow's dust. Do I trust that beyond all of this, this, that He is to be feared? That He is the only one worthy of my awe? His love for me is not contingent on my awe of Him, but I know I would see His love more abundantly if I saw Him as He truly is.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.