Psalm 42

As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food

day and night,

while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

These things I remember,

as I pour out my soul:

how I would go with the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of 

       God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I remember you

from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls;

all your breakers and your waves

have gone over me.

By day the LORD commands his 

        steadfast love,

and at night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock:

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

I hope to post about Haiti and Camp separately and in-depth sometime in the future, but for right now, I'm going to sum up my summer as best as I can.
This summer has been more difficult than I could imagine or expect. It has broken my heart and left it in pieces. It has challenged my patience. It has not been the easy and refreshing summer I hoped for. It has not rebuilt me in the same ways that I was rebuilt last summer. This summer has been the hardest summer of my life. That sounds so dramatic and a little bit whiny, but it's true.
But, (oh the blessed article, it insures something hopeful after all the hopeless) it has been good. This summer has perhaps been the best summer of my life. I have been crushed and re-crushed by God's breakers and waves. And that's okay. God is never done growing me. He's not ever done taking things that I think I need or that I want away. He's never done refining my faith.
I stumbled upon this Psalm while at the beach last week with Jenny.
I read it three times in a row without stopping. After the third time, I thought "this is this summer."
It is.
I shall again praise Him.