Hopeful Thanksgiving

 

Last week in our small group, we had a discussion about prayer. We read a question asking, “What can you thank God for?” The obvious answers came out: “everything.” But diving deeper, we would think of the many physical life blessings God has given us. The next question was regarding what we had studied in previous weeks, “What else can we thank God for?” Here some mentioned salvation, spiritual security… hope.

           I have been thinking about hope a lot in the past few months. We live in a world that feels very hopeless at times. Maybe even more often than not. There is discouragement, grief, darkness, hatred filling hearts and lives all around us. Lost people living lifeless lives.

           How thankful I am for the hope we have. And really this hope covers so much ground.

           It covers our daily struggles. The days when it is hard to wake up and get out of bed. Because we are NOT alone. Never alone. We have a constant friend who has experienced the hurts and the emotions we go through, while without sin.

          It covers the trials that we feel may overwhelm us. We face days, months, weeks of insecurity, fear, loss, hurt, difficulty. And yet, we know that God will use what we are going through for His glory and our good. These trials produce endurance, character and hope.

           It covers the future, what comes after this life. This world is not our home, but Jesus is preparing a place for us. A place with no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. We have hope because Jesus has bridged the gap for us. He has redeemed the dust. We walk toward glory every day. HE is our hope.

           A favorite song of mine was sung last Sunday in church. Voices raised together proclaiming these truths. It’s hard not to include the whole song, but for the sake of space I’ll leave you with a few stanzas and the chorus. “Jesus Christ My Living Hope” by Phil Wickham:

 

How great the chasm that lay between us

How high the mountain I could not climb

In desperation, I turn to heaven

And spoke your name into the night

 

Then through the darkness, Your lovingkindness

Tore through the shadows of my soul

The work is finished, the end is written

Jesus Christ, my living hope

 

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in your name

Jesus Christ, my living hope

 

 

--Sandy Gromacki

Consider it all joy?!?

         Recently I woke up saying, "I have a good life.  God is so good to me."  I lay and recounted all the ways God has blessed me.  I acknowledged some of the difficult things God has allowed to come my way, but affirmed how God has used those things to grow me.  Unfortunately I sometimes do not wake up praising God.  I wake up griping about how my body hurts and how people have let me down.

        Have my circumstances changed?  Not at all. The only things that have changed are my attitude and my viewpoint.  God has a lot to say to me and probably to you as well about what we should be thinking.

        I Thessalonians 5:18, In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

        Philippians 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

        Colossians 3:16-17  Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

        Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.

        These verses are all from the pen of the Apostle Paul and when you think of what his circumstances were, they are pretty amazing.  For example, the Philippians verses are written from the depths of a Roman jail, hardly a place to induce rejoicing.

        James goes further in his instructions. James 1:2-4 says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

        I saw in an old journal of mine that next to this verse in James I had written, "I can accept trials, but I have not yet gotten to where I can rejoice in them."  What kind of trials might you and I be facing?  Let's see.  The death of a friend or family member?  Financial hardships?  You can't pay your bills?  Could your house be repossessed? Alienation from a child?  A wandering child? Marital discord? Health issues, either chronic or acute?  Do you deal with pain on a daily basis? Questions or fears about the future?

        I have faced these things in the past and will face others in the future, I am sure.  You have your list as well.  Must I consider these things as cause for joy? I don't really think I have a choice if I am to please God.  These verses say, "in everything," "all things," "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

        Do you have some heartaches that you cannot share?  Then count it all joy as you talk to Jesus. He already knows, but He wants you to acknowledge them, to trust Him with your pain.  He wants to see your triumph.

        This Thanksgiving as you are sharing what you are thankful for, don't forget the difficult things.  Can you count it all joy when you encounter those things?

                                                                            ~~Faith Himes Lamb

        

        

       

You Are Not Alone

 

Middle school is an awkward time of life no matter what, but it was a pretty hard time for me. When I was going into 7^th grade, we left a fairly legalistic church and came to Grace after visiting many local churches. I remember grappling with a new understanding of what living as a Christian looked like and being overwhelmed with the newness of the music. I was familiar with the hymns, but most of what we sang in youth group was completely new to me. Because I didn’t know those songs, I had to pay close attention to the words, and they spoke to my heart in a deeply meaningful way.

But I struggled with connecting with my peers. There were few girls my age who attended regularly, and most of the youth group saw each other at school during the week while I was homeschooled. While I was growing significantly in my spiritual life, I felt so alone.

I don’t remember which summer it was, but the youth group traveled up to Michigan for summer camp at Lake Ann. It was a fun week, but there was one slot on the schedule that I dreaded all week. On our last morning, two hours were set aside to be alone with God. Even though I was an avid reader, it seemed like such a long time with just my Bible and nothing else planned. I definitely had a bad attitude about it.

Our cabin went out to a grassy spot, and we all spread out. I sat down and began flipping through my Bible with no clue what to read and little hope that this wouldn’t be the most boring part of the week. I landed on Psalm 139, and my throat caught as I read the exact words I needed in that moment:

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you” (Psalm 139:1-12 NIV).

In my loneliness, it was such a comfort to read that there was Someone who knew me deeply, including all the overwhelming and confusing emotions—to recognize that God is there and that I can lean into Him at any time. Though I still struggled with making connections through my middle and high school years, that moment was pivotal in my spiritual journey. I began to find comfort in turning to God instead of wallowing in self-pity.

Connection with other people is important. We were created as relational beings, and the church was designed to be a community of Jesus-followers who support one another. But we all experience times in our lives when we feel alone. We may be physically separated from others, but more often than not (at least for me), we feel alone because we withdraw from others when under stress. We may think that no one feels the same way we do, or we may think that we would be unnecessarily burdening others by reaching out. 

As a confused middle-schooler, I did not know how to reach out to others, and in that time of loneliness, God provided comfort by telling me that He knew me intimately. I eventually made connections with other people, and I am incredibly thankful for this church community. If you are feeling lonely, I encourage you to first recognize that there is Someone who knows every part of you and loves you deeply. No matter where you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually, God is there. But second of all, I encourage you to reach out. You are a relational being, and you need others. You might be surprised that many others do feel the same way and that people are ready and willing to be there for you.

 

--Concetta Swann

God Our Breakwater

 This past summer I had the privilege of spending four days with just my daughter exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We had taken her boys for a week of camp at Lake Anne Camp, as my son, Nathaniel, was co-preaching with Ken Rudolph that week.   While they were at camp, my daughter and I took off without an agenda.  We did plan ahead for hotels, but then we basically asked the locals what we needed to see.  We enjoyed eating cherries (Moomer's cherry ice cream was the best – straight from the cow), sailing through the locks at St. Sioux Marie, climbing sand dunes, finding rocks on the beach (yes, rocks, not shells), seeing historical sights, and--my favorite--visiting lighthouses. 

 

The last lighthouse we visited was at the end of a breakwater or jetty.  As I was having my devotions shortly afterward, I was reminded of this particular breakwater.  It was a windy day and, on the left, as we walked towards the lighthouse, the waves were thrashing against the huge boulders of rock, splashing us as we were walking.  On the right side of the breakwater, the water was perfectly calm.  There was a marina, and the boats docked there were very calmly floating on the water.  I thought about this picture and could associate it with our daily life.  Difficult storms come and go in life.  Times may be rough, like the waves, or times could be calm and peaceful.  But who is in control of those times?  God is.  He is the breakwater of our lives. 

 

Now I can’t stop here.  As we were walking on the breakwater, we noticed something else. It must have been a normal thing to do, as we saw several kids doing the same thing. Teenagers had brought out mini-trampolines and were using them to dive into the water from the breakwater.  Now if it were me, I’d be jumping into the calm water. But no, these kids were diving into the rough water thrashing against the rocks. This brought to my mind the verse in Psalms 18:2 – The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 

 

If I could create a correlation here, I see the breakwater as God. The rough seas represent life, and the calm seas represent the grace of God. Those kids (no matter how crazy I thought they were) represent us. You see, I asked one of them if they didn’t fear diving headfirst into the rocks or been thrashed against the rocks.  His answer was, “No, we know how far to jump to be safe.” Now that is confidence! 

 

The question I have to ask, and we all should ask, is this:  Is my faith strong enough to have the confidence that God will carry me through?  The confidence these kids had in their safety is the kind of confidence we need that no matter our circumstances, God is there with us. What a beautiful reminder God has given to us through His creation. 

 

--Bonnie King