Those of us who believe that God guides our thoughts and influences us in our daily lives as I do, take time to reflect upon events and bring our distresses and joys to Him in prayer. The last few days, I have had many moments of reflection, and now it is time to record thoughts which have both challenged and enlightened me.
Once again, disaster has struck our people. This time it is not a hurricane, it is not a huge terrorist attack, it is not the death of a national leader (unless you consider Jimmy Carter’s long life from which he rests with Jesus. We weep as we see thousands of peoples’ lives affected by what can only be described as fire and brimstone of epic proportions in California.
And yesterday, we attended the funeral, or rather celebration of life service for a dear lady in our church who has joined Jesus her Lord. We celebrated her life well lived, sang, and even laughed as we considered her life of service, love, and humility. She truly exhibited the fruit of the spirit in her life.
As our nation prepares for a change in leadership, a welcome one, I contend, we look to the future, and I’m reflecting on the huge problems that await significant changes while I try to remember the God-given blessings already seen. As an octogenarian, I have seen many highs and lows, have prayed for those in war (there are at least three of them raging right now), I have prayed against injustice in all its forms (there are riots in the streets at our universities, in Venezuela,), there is sex trafficking and there are thousands of lost children due to the illegal immigration scourge in our land and others, there is upheaval as country leaders in our hemisphere and others occur, and there are natural disasters which demand our attention.
On the other hand, there is much beauty and joy to celebrate. Today our granddaughter, our precious songbird, sings in a concert in Tampa with the All State Middle School Chorus. She told me her favorite song they’ll sing is “Gloria,” an anthem which celebrates our faith. I pray the Lord will bless her performance as she “sells the song” to the audience and lifts her voice in praise.
The contrast is stunning. There are many things in this world brought to us in the news that blares at us. I can’t do much about any of them except pray that our country returns to the faith which once guided our people. There was a time when at times of disaster, our churches opened their doors to prayer vigils. Now they are locked against vandals and those who would desecrate them. There were times, perhaps somewhere they exist today, when a benefactor would say, “Californians who have lost your homes, I have a new apartment building here in my town. Come and live here until you get your lives back to order.” There are those like the Amish who are building “tiny homes” for hurricane victims living in tents in the Carolinas.
I am praying for people to step up and correct the human suffering and solve the obvious problems our society is facing. It is 47 degrees outside, and there are homeless people, even in our community, who are outdoors, hiding in the woods. There are people who can’t afford Boars Head deli cheese at $16dollars plus a pound, or a package of hamburger at close to $20. We barely can.
And yet, as I pray today, thanking God for His love and care, I know that He is sovereign, that I am merely one who walks through this life looking for Godincidences and opportunities to share His love, and ask, “Lord, which of these concerns should I be addressing today, and how can I relay my understanding that, as Jesus said, the poor shall be always with us, and He has brought many of us through personal and national disasters before, and that He controls the winds of California, the earth on its axis, the storms, and calms our souls when things beyond our secular-humanism attempts at hubris and pride.
No, indeed. Man cannot control everything, even when he thinks he can. Perhaps God is showing us that we need to call on His Name in national, even worldwide revival, and recognize that apocraphal fire and brimstone can be a harbinger of end times fury as God teaches us Who, indeed, is in charge.
While we mourn the loss of church buildings in California, we affirm pastors’ calls for Christians to rally together and show that the church is not a building, but its people, and somehow show the world that mercy and love can overcome crises as they have in the past. I pray that this very day we may see evolving blessings because the Lord’s Army cares to help when people are hurting and give praise to the Father of us all Who indeed is sovereign in all things and loves His own.
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