Isaiah 43

This chapter has been taking over my brain ever since last week, which is a good thing. It's too long to post it all right here, but you can click here to see it.

I've been looking ahead towards Haiti more recently - looking at uprooting what's been established here over the past 6 years (friendships, my church, my connection to the city, etc.) and getting ready to step into something new that I don't know. But in all of the natural, human insecurity that gets brought up with that, focusing on God's possessive approach and love towards us (v.1, v.10) in Isaiah 43 has kept me more secure as I think about this transition.

Getting ready to go to a country where I won't have the social, cultural, or (especially) linguistic capital that I have here is pretty unnerving. (ah, Bourdieu. He was so smart.) But with all of that I'm reminded that He is literally with me in every situation in which I'll find myself (v. 1-3). And that's the most comforting thing right now. And I'm told not to fear (v. 1, v.5), that the Lord is strong (like, the whole chapter), that He's powerful enough to make a river spring up in the desert (v. 19), that He loves me and has gone to great lengths to make me His (v.25-). I've been spending a lot of time reading & sitting with that beautiful love expressed in Isaiah 43 for a week and am still overwhelmed by it to the point of being almost unable to get it out into words. But I'm trying. I'm still just amazed at this great, complete, personal, and tangible Love!! This week I have been especially happy to be His.