His Mercy Endures

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

for His steadfast love endures forever."

Psalm 136:1

Yesterday I was stuck in traffic for over an hour.

Something people often fail to mention about summer in the Scottish Highlands is how busy and often dangerous the roads are. We mostly have narrow, single lane roads. A lot of the time, people are driving well below the speed limit, so often people try to overtake. This can cause accidents and, because the roads are narrow and single lane, this can mean that the roads can be closed for hours in order to clear up the mess.

This was my situation yesterday. Normally when I drive down the road on a Sunday to come and see my family in Glasgow for a few days, the roads are fairly quiet and I can make it down the road in about 3 and a half hours. This wasn't the case yesterday. It ended up taking me 5 hours to get from my home in the Highlands to my parents house.

Whilst sitting stationary for an hour during the journey, I started to get annoyed about how long it was taking for me to get going. I was tired and getting bored of sitting waiting.

And this version of Psalm 136 started playing. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. In traffic jams and other inconveniences in life, it can be hard to be thankful. But through it all, His mercy endures.

I began to think of all the things I was thankful for. The half tank of petrol that I now had because I filled up in Fort William. The wee bag of dolly mixture I had in my glovebox to keep me going. My psalms playlist which could remind me me of God's goodness. The fact that I was simply waiting because of an accident and not actually involved in the accident myself.

Your mercy endures forever and ever.