Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice; the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth.” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
Dear Fellow Hikers,
I chose Psalm 46 for my opening quote today for a couple of reasons. Obviously I needed a Psalm that contained the word Selah. That narrowed my choices down to 39 of the 150 Psalms contained in the Bible. So why did I choose 46? Because 46 and I have history… we have a relationship… we’ve been through a lot together, especially in my law enforcement days. So it’s personal… and it simply comforts me. Down the road I’ll be writing a letter focusing on this psalm, but for today I ask that you simply read it… then take a minute or two and pause… then take few more minutes… and consider it.
Selah is a Hebrew word, so if you are looking for an absolute, academic definition for the word in English, you’ve got a lot of options to sort through. I suggest you find a faith leader you respect and trust, and ask them what the word means to them… how do they use it? Clearly, not being an academic myself, I reached out to a clergy colleague, who also has an extensive background in music, (which is very relevant), who gave me some possible perspectives. Through our conversation he suggested this option… “to pause and consider.” It only took a few minutes and I realized… “that fits!”It’s been my go to definition ever since.
So, here we are a couple months into our first season of Life Hike Letters, and I’m feeling now is a good time to Selah… to pause and consider what we’ve been up to… where we’ve been… where we’re going…
I feel pretty good about how these letters have been developing. I want to say thanks to those of you that have contacted me with feed back. I also appreciate all of you who have taken the time to open the emails, exploring, following and engaging my writing. I haven’t spent much time figuring out exactly how the analytics work, and what they actually mean, but I know that most of you folks are reading what I write. So I’m excited to say I’m gonna keep writing as long as there are people willing to keep reading!
The majority of letters I’ve written so far have been a written version of the “go to” messages I’ve been sharing verbally, in person for the past 20 years. Those messages defined the context of the ministry work we were doing, and carry much of the context we are hoping to establish as we go forward with the Life Hike Letters. My intention has always been that the stories I share have value whether received as a stand alone message, or as a single component of a bigger collective message. That hope continues with these written letters. However, I intend to take advantage of using the written word, and it’s sustainability and accessibility, to spend more time on the development of some bigger collective messages. Possibly developing into some Common Faith messages that could benefit us all in these continuing divisive times.
Most of what I’ve said today was not a surprise to me. For those of you that know me and have followed my chaplaincy work over the years, it probably wasn’t a surprise to you either. But I have to say, my final thought here… truly caught me off guard. My general letter writing process usually involves about three separate days of work. For 2-4 hours, each of those days, I spend time pondering, reading, pausing and considering, resting, and actively listening to my inner voice… my God voice.* On day three this week I was enjoying my pause (even might of dozed off a bit) when a thought flowed into my head. It was three simple words, words that have showed up before, usually quickly moving on. Today they stuck around.
Because of those three words, my letter editing took me into an uncommon day four of writing, editing and a continued process of selah… And with that… we now have this…
Our Life Hike Mission: “Love God Back…”
With Care and Gratitude, Dan
Postscript…
Re:*My God Voice… When I was a police officer, one of our department chaplains was Father Tim Power. When I became chief, he took a special interest in me (although I’m pretty sure he made most people feel like that), and we spoke often. In those conversations he would make reference to his inner voice that spoke to him as his God Voice. On more than one occasion as we talked about issues of faith he would say: “Well, my God Voice told me that…” or “I heard my God Voice say…” and I liked the sound of it.
Next Up: “Love God Back…” (Friday, 02/14/25, S1/L11)