Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison. Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

There are some seasons when it feels like the ground is shifting beneath your feet. Maybe something in your family feels uncertain. Maybe there's a conflict with a relationship you can't

resolve, a diagnosis you didn't expect, maybe a financial pressure you can't get out from underneath,

or just a larger sense that the world in general itself feels unstable. And when the world around us

feels unsteady, our bodies often know before our minds do.

Maybe your shoulders tighten, your sleep changes, you wake up with your thoughts racing,

you're scanning for something that just feels off. This is your nervous system trying to find

safety in the middle of uncertainty. And today's psalm speaks

directly into that place. It doesn't pretend that there isn't real trouble. It's not trying to offer a

sort of thinly veiled spirituality. Instead, it's naming the upheaval, the instability, the fear,

and then giving us an image of God as a refuge.

As you listen to today's passage, I invite you to notice what happens inside your body as you

hear the words, God is our refuge and strength. Today's scripture is Psalm 46, 1 through 7. God is our refuge and our strength. Today's scripture is Psalm 46, 1 through 7. God is our refuge and our strength,

an ever-present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the

mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with

their surging, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the

most high dwells. God is within her and she will not fall. God will help her at break of day.

Nations are an uproar and kingdoms fall.

He lifts his voice. The earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

This is such a grounding line. One of the most familiar in all of Scripture, God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble.

And I want to start by noticing what it doesn't say. It doesn't say God is our escape from trouble, right? It doesn't say God is our guarantee that nothing hard will ever happen. It says God is our help in trouble. And this distinction is really important because so much of our anxiety comes from wanting trouble to disappear.

We tell ourselves, once this is resolved, then I'll be able to breathe. Once I know

...