Everything

This week I've been living with Psalm 24, reading it daily as part of my devotional routine. Since Monday I can't get passed verse one, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." This one verse has shaped my prayers for my friends, family, the world, and myself. If everything and everyone belongs to God, everything includes the people involved in the violence and bloodshed in Israel and Lebanon today. The people in Iraq. My enemies. My call as a pastor. My son. My interests. I need to live with such a radical disposition that everything and everyone belongs to God and I as one of God's people are a steward of what's God owns. Personally, without the divine ownership perspective, I will tend to try and control, or at least worry about, outcomes whether it be in my work, within my family, or when I read about, like today, increasing violence in the middle east. I can surrender to God trusting that if everything and everyone belongs to God, then God wants the best for everything and everyone. We mess things up, not God. And yet, God intervenes to help right our wrongs, to mop up our messes, to stop unnecessary violence against innocents. My hope today is that the God who oversees also intervenes. "Your kingdom come Lord."