March 15, 2018
Shepherd Me, O God
Refrain: Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.
God is my shepherd so nothing I shall want; I rest in the meadows of faithfulness and love,
I walk by the quiet waters of peace. (Refrain)
Gently You raise me and heal my weary soul; You lead me by pathways of righteousness and truth
My spirit shall sing the music of Your Name (Refrain)
Though I should wander the valley of death I fear no evil for You are at my side
Your rod and Your staff my comfort and my hope (Refrain)
You have set me a banquet of love In the face of hatred crowning me with love
Beyond my power to hold (Refrain)
Surely Your kindness and mercy follow me All the days of my life
I will dwell in the house of my God forevermore (Refrain)
Text: Marty Haugen, b. 1950
I love Bible camp. Some of my best memories from my middle school and high school days are from weeks spent at Lutherdale Bible Camp in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to be a counselor. So when I applied during my first year of college and was offered a position in the kitchen, doing basic prep and washing dishes for 150 campers three times a day for the whole summer, I was more than a little disappointed. But I eventually decided that being at camp—even in the kitchen—was better than not being there at all, so I accepted the job.
After two weeks of staff training, it was finally the first Sunday that campers would arrive. That Sunday turned out to be a day that changed my life. A few hours before campers arrived, I received notice that there was a family emergency and I needed to call home. My older brother answered and shared news that still brings me to tears. My younger brother, Chad, had been killed in a car accident at the age of 17. In that moment, I felt like my whole life fell apart. I needed God to hold me together, but at the same time, I was struggling with the fact that God wasn’t who I thought God was anymore. I firmly believed that God was all-loving and all-powerful, but if both of those things were true, I couldn’t understand how God would not have stopped the accident that claimed my brother’s life.
A couple of weeks after Chad’s funeral, I told my parents I wanted to go back to camp. I couldn’t stand just sitting around and being sad. I needed to keep busy. What I didn’t realize until later was that camp was the perfect place for me to be that summer. And not just at camp, but in the kitchen. There I had the freedom to disappear when my grief was overwhelming—a freedom I would not have had if I had been a counselor. At camp, I was surrounded by a Christian community who supported me and loved me in the midst of my doubts and questions, through my moods and my tears, and truly showered me with the love of God when I most needed it.
Psalm 23 is a passage of scripture that often brings comfort and encouragement to those who are grieving. When Marty Haugen wrote this hymn based on that psalm, the words of his chorus summed up exactly what God did for me during that summer—in and through the people I was blessed to work with: “Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.”
Why was I offered a position in the kitchen that summer? I will never know. But I do know that it was exactly where I needed to be. And that God was holding me in his all-loving, all-powerful hands, just as God holds each of us, every moment of every day, shepherding us from death to life.
Rev. Kristin Woelk
Associate Pastor
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