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I remember being at Glacier National Park as a teenager, and the awe I felt climbing to the top of the mountain, a valley of wildflowers and lake below, surrounded by even taller mountains, all sorts of wildlife, and a clear blue sky – it is one of the holiest places I’ve experienced.

Confession: mornings are not always my best time. And Sunday mornings, when I’m trying to get myself and my children up and moving, are especially not always my best. As much as I am loathe to admit it, there are many Sunday mornings when we finally get to the car after having yelled myself and my children there.

These words are hitting differently this year as we reimagine faith. In fact, these verses are so well-known to those of us who have been Christians for any length of time, I wonder if their power has diminished for us. Or at the very least, if we have stopped getting curious about how they speak to our lives.

Sometimes Paul can get so wordy, and the 4th and 5th chapters of Romans are prime examples of this! However, in this two-verse nugget, I was struck today by how my faith comes to me as a gift in part because of one person – Abraham – who trusted God’s unbelievable promise.

The Lord will preserve you from all evil and will keep your life. The Lord will watch over your going out and you're coming in, from this time forth forevermore. —Psalm 121.7-8

For the most part, living as we do in a wealthy country with virtually anything we could want within a click, it is easy to get lulled into a sense of self-reliance. In fact, self-reliance has become a value in our culture, as we hear of people living the American dream wherein they start with nothing and become anything they want to be through hard work and persistence.

[Jesus answered,] The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ~ John 3.8

Do you hear it?