Settled

You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. – Psalm 104:5 (NRSV) 

Hundreds of millions of years ago the ground where my church sits was a vast inland sea filled with creatures that made their bodies and homes from calcium carbonate. Over millions of years, they died and settled to the sea floor, accumulating layer by layer. 

Finally, the weight of that accumulation created limestone. And then, over millions more years, the calcium ions in that limestone were replaced with magnesium to create the even stronger dolomite, the bedrock on which Chicago is founded.  

Psalm 104 is what Walter Brueggemann called a song of orientation. These songs present a well-ordered world created by a good God. In these songs, as he wrote, “some things are settled and beyond doubt so that one does not live and believe in the midst of overwhelming anxiety.” 

They make me a little uneasy. All that certainty and order in a world that seems anything but. I’m more comfortable with questions and doubts. (Also an important part of the tradition!) 

But in this moment when so much has been stirred up, in this season of overwhelming anxiety, I wonder what might happen if I anchor myself in their truth. If I let some things be settled, allow their weight to accumulate, and wait for it to grow strong.  

What would happen if I took my stand on that ancient bedrock: That God is good. That life is a gift. That creation is founded on love. And pointed toward justice. 

In 1957, the first architects drilled into Chicago’s dolomite to anchor their skyscraper, and buildings grew taller from that firm foundation. 

What could we build from our solid ground? 

Prayer
Rock of ages, ground me.