Grace clicked out of the pop-up news article and turned away from her laptop with a sigh. She’d tried so hard to be brave after Mom told her Elijah’s story. She’d even tried to trust God with her fear and listen to Him for what to do. But if God was saying something to her, she certainly couldn’t hear it. All she could hear was the loud noise of how much worse things were getting and how so many more people were getting sick. She felt as if her head would explode with all the bad news swirling around inside.

Just then, her phone rang. Grace wanted to ignore it, but somehow her hand reached out and swiped on the call without even checking the number. “Hello?”

“Whoa! Why so glum, chum?”

It was Sade, her ever perky friend.

“Oh – hey, Sade.” Grace mumbled. “Sorry, I don’t feel great.”

“You certainly sound it,” Sade responded. “I haven’t heard from you in a while, and was wondering what happened. You’ve practically disappeared from social media! You’re not ill, are you?” Sade’s voice took on a worried tone.

“No, no..” Grace sighed again. “I’m fine. But no one else seems to be. I can hardly bear to be online anymore – everything just seems so crazy.”

Sade was silent for a few moments.  “You know, Grace – I understand exactly how you feel.”

“How can you?!” Grace yelled. “I’m just so scared all the time and everyone just seems to be fighting and getting mad!” She bit back a sob. “I just want everything to go back to normal.”

“Now I know why God nudged me to call you,” Sade said softly. “You may not have heard, Grace, but one of my cousins got really sick when this all started.”

“Oh,” said Grace. “No, I hadn’t heard.  I’m really sorry, Sade.  Is he…?”

“He recovered, but he’s still not quite himself. I just didn’t understand how that could happen, and I got really mad at God – after all, we had all prayed for protection and good health.”

“Well, thank God he’s alive, right?” Grace said, feeling ashamed of her outburst.

“Yes,” Sade responded. “But just seeing him so sick made me stop praying. We were all so careful, so if it could happen to him, I thought it could be any one of us and nothing we did would make a difference.”

“That is how I feel,” Grace replied. “And I don’t even know anyone close to me who has gotten sick.”

“Well, my Aunt understood what I was going through, and she told me about the Psalmists Club.”

“What’s that?” Grace asked.

“It’s a group of people who are writing their own Psalms to tell God how they feel. In the Bible, the Psalms are basically poems expressing human emotions – fear, sadness, joy, praise, gratitude. This was the people’s way of letting out all those big feelings inside and communicating with God.”

“How does it work?”

“You start by studying different Psalms – especially the ones that seem to be saying exactly what is in your heart. And then when you’re ready, you write your own Psalm or two or three. I’m still studying, but I already feel so much better. It’s like God knows what’s going on inside of me, and He’s showing me how to let it all out.”

“I think I’d like to try that,” Grace said. “Where do I begin?”

https://www.icharacter.org/products-page/psalm-91/