“You can stand on your head that long.”
That was a line I heard from my Daddy several times growing up. Most of the time, what he was actually saying was simply, “This won’t last that long, so quit your whining and get back to work.”
I usually heard it when I was complaining about some job I was having to do on the farm. But Daddy also told me that line a couple of times when I was dealing with an aggravating situation at school. Even as an adult, he said it to me when I told him about a difficult time I was having at work. Let us just say he told it to me enough times that it became a part of my vocabulary, and that I even used it at work with fellow employees during my work career.
“You can stand on your head that long.” But how long is going to be “that long?” As a kid back home, I knew that eventually it would get close to dark, and we would finally get out of that tobacco field. But other times I really didn’t know how long it would be, and if I could, figuratively speaking, stand on my head that long.
I wonder if David, one of the great heroes of the Bible, ever felt that way. Actually, we know he felt that way. Before he was king of Israel, David was a loyal follower of King Saul. David was popular with the people because of his heroics on the battlefield. King Saul became jealous of David, and wanted him dead. According to Biblical scholars, David was chased by King Saul and his army for around nine years. During that time David had to, among other things, hide in caves, surround himself with a bunch of criminals and misfits, and even faked madness. It was during this time that he composed some of the songs and prayers found in the Book of Psalms.
You can almost feel the desperation and burden he was carrying in the first two verses of Psalm 13. He wrote, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” (Notice that he asks God “How long?” four times in just two verses.)
The truth is sometimes we just can’t stand on our head that long. I see people around me who have been facing the effects of a long-term illness, folks who have lost loved ones, or dealing with painful family issues that seem never ending. It has been that long, and simple sayings are not going to resolve them.
David was there, in those caves, while being chased by Saul. But David had not lost his faith in God. Later in the same Psalm he writes, “But I have trusted in Your mercy.” David was still trusting in God, even as he was being unjustly chased by Saul. He was still trusting God, even though his human nature, like the rest of us, wanted to know, “How long?”
Years ago, in another place and time, I was there. My “How long?” lasted about a year, but the scars from that time linger even today. Forget standing on my head, I was just trying to keep standing throughout the ordeal. And maybe that is the key to getting through it. Keep standing, keep going, and, like David, trust the One who is able to keep you standing.
So, can you stand on your head that long? Yes, I believe, no matter how long, you can.