Sweet Hope

          We have been inundated with information, both bad and good. Our thoughts are swimming and our minds are racing.  We have seen and heard about the hurt, the pain, and the sheer exhaustion of many. Our hearts are breaking over the immensity of the problems before us. We ask, Lord, what can we do?  

There is so much need.  Not one person on this planet is without need, and no one likes being weak or helpless.  We don’t like to admit that we have weaknesses, but we often find ourselves in a state of weakness.  And everyone is weak right now, including ourselves.  

When we are weak we ought to rejoice, for it is then that God’s power is strongest.  He intends for us to lean on Him, worship Him, and rely upon Him.  He loves to help His own.  He is the good Shepherd of the sheep.  

      We sense our utter dependance on the Lord as we prepare to leave our homes and go to others in need.  We cannot do anything apart from Him. Like those who once were unclean but now are returning to the camp healed and restored, we return having been refined by our own trials.  Our desire is to worship our Healer in a spirit of thankfulness and then to turn toward a perishing world.  

Saying Grace by Norman Rockwell

Along with worshiping comes a commissioning. We are being sent on a rescue mission led by the One who saves.  Our hope is in the One who has gone before us, the forerunner of our faith.  

       We have been commissioned to go into the world to tell others what Christ Jesus has done.  We were sick, we were helpless, sinners lost beyond all hope, but Jesus rescued us and gave us life.  Now we are ambassadors for a good and gracious King.  

In our comings and goings, we will find countless ways to share our hope in Christ.  We can be a kind and patient hand, bringing comfort and help.  We can prayerfully listen.  We can laugh and sing with those who are rejoicing, and we can grieve with those who are weeping.  We can answer the searching questions of our friends and neighbors, our family and acquaintances.  And we have a home, a place to welcome others in. 

Will we be ready to invite others to taste and see that the Lord is good?  Will we prepare our homes to be safe places of hospitality, rest, worship and work?  Will we be ready to show Christ to a weary world?  Will we love our neighbors as we love ourselves?

Many of us may feel like Moses, unqualified and empty handed, unsure and fearful.  But God has given us all that we need.  We have seen Him and we know Him.  We can say that we have met with the living God.  We can say that we are His.

Raisins by Norman Rockwell

    So what do you have in your hand?  Whatever you have, God can use it for His glory and for the good of many.  Do you have a home, a car, a kitchen, a kitchen table, a porch, a lawn chair, a Bible or some time?  Then you have something!  We all have an opportunity to give a reason for our hope right now.  For “we who have fled for refuge… have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  We have this as a sure and steady anchor of the soul.” Hebrews 6

We live under the care of the One who knows all things, who steadies us amidst a sea of troubles.  He carries our worries and anxieties so that we can be free to do the good works set apart for us before time began.  This is our time, our place, to live, work, worship and love to the praise and glory of our heavenly Father.  We have a hope that anchors our souls and sweetens every hard and bitter trial.  It is in the power of His hope and and His stabilizing love that we can do abundantly more than we could ever ask or think on our own.  He who calls us to this is faithful and He will hold us fast, both now and forevermore. 

Anchored in Hope, 

Your Fellow Sojourner

In Remembering and Returning, Part Two: A More Gracious Return

       We should be a people known for our patience and grace, and all the more in light of our current circumstances. As one Covid-19 survivor said, “Recovery is tricky, its full of a lot of bumps and bruises, its not a linear process.”  We must have grace with one another to falter and fail, to start and to stop.  We will make missteps, but steps we will make.  The key is that we will be moving in a direction, a direction toward community.
Each family, couple, and individual will take their own steps back into the world at their own pace, and this is good.  This is not a time to point fingers or to wag tongues.  This is a time to wait with great patience for one another.  We  ought to bear with one another and encourage one another. “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Rom. 15:1-2.  

One of the greatest ways that we can love one another is to move toward one another in an attitude of understanding.  Paul tells us in Romans 15 that we should adjust our attitudes and our actions in whatever way we can in order to provide a safe and secure place for our friends, neighbors and family to grow in joyful holiness.  We need to entrust our loved ones to the Lord.  He will sanctify and He will restore.  We need to let Him do His work in us and in others. 
Like astronauts returning from a space mission, we will need to acclimate to the pressure of the outside world again.  When astronauts return to earth after a space mission they go through a period of readjustment.  Everything is turned upside down, literally.  Everywhere they go, they must adjust to gravity pressing in on them again.  They know that they must move in order to recover, lying down will only impede their return to normal functioning.  
Astronauts come back to earth anticipating both a physical and an  emotional recovery.  Living in space changes you.  You gain a new perspective after looking at our world from space.  Spending some time away from a world where turmoil and suffering are constant, causes you to stop and reflect about life. You are faced with the question, what is really important? The answer, people that we love. 
This is a good time to look at our patterns for living and ask some hard questions.  How well have I loved others in the past?  How can I love them better in the future?  What should remain and what should go?  How can I prepare myself, my family, and my home to love others better?  
How should we return and welcome one another after we have been apart?  Paul has some answers for us. “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Rom. 15:4-7

Our hope is in the words of Christ, let us speak them to one another.  We also have an example of endurance in Christ, let us be encouraged by Him together.  We should welcome one another with the graciousness of Christ.  
May the beautiful harmony that comes from our many voices, sound like one voice to the world around us, and may it be a sweet, sweet sound.  We do not have to worry if we will sound sweet to Jesus, He knows our weaknesses and He knows our frame.  He died for all of it, and He will never turn us out. His steadfast love for us is from everlasting to everlasting, before, during and after a worldwide pandemic; so, let us love one another. 

 ~ Your Fellow Sojourner

Resources to help with a more gracious return:

A look at our liturgies (habits that inform and shape our lives) before we go out into the world:

How can we implement these good patterns into our lives? 

1. Establish our personal, and familial times of worship - practice these regularly (Our liturgies of worship)
2. Establish an atmosphere of hospitality and worship, discovery and learning (Our liturgies of service, work, and hospitality)
3. Maintain a family calendar with important dates and then prayerfully add get togethers and other activities.  (Our liturgies of time and resource management)

A template for phasing in our re-entry (Take and tweak this as you will - always use wisdom and grace in making your decisions.): 

PHASE 1: Attend regular church/home group meetings (Even if they are held outside in the good clean air!)

PHASE 2: Visit grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles (Visit our beloved family members in a safe and caring manner. )

PHASE 3: Open up our home for hospitality

PHASE 4: Incorporate activities that do not disrupt or become burdensome.  We ALWAYS reserve the option to stop or ramp back an activity.

PHASE 5:  Seek to maintain a regular pattern of personal and family worship - meaningful and necessary work -  and social activities that seek to fulfill our vision and mission.

PHASE 6: Reflect weekly and monthly on our goals and phases