Newsletter – Finding A Foothold
Ever felt like life is closing in on you? The pressures mount: family worries, health
concerns, money problems, relationship tensions – and you wonder how you’re going
to keep your head above water. You’re not the first to feel that way, and you certainly
won’t be the last. People have been wrestling with these same struggles for
thousands of years.
That’s why I love the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament. It’s a remarkable
collection of ancient poetry – raw, honest, and deeply human. I don’t mean poetry in
the style of William Wordsworth or Pam Ayres. These are prayers and cries of the
heart, written in a different time and language, with much of their rhythm and lyrical
beauty inevitably lost in translation. Yet they still carry a timeless power, speaking to
the human condition in every age.
Listen to these words from Psalm 69: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come
up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into
the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is
parched.”
That image of “no foothold” is painfully familiar to many of us. Life’s currents are
strong, and it can feel like we’re being swept away.
Faith is a foothold. Faith in God – whether strong and certain or shaky and unsure –
gives us something solid to stand on. It offers hope when we’re weary and a glimmer
of light when all seems dark.
Psalm 40 puts it beautifully: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and
heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my
feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a
hymn of praise to our God.”
May you find that foothold today, secure on the rock, with a new song of praise on
your lips.
Every blessing,
Andrew Gadd
