Mistaken for our mother, [Nature] is terrifying and even abominable. But if she is only our sister—if she and we have a common Creator—if she is our sparring partner—then the situation is quite tolerable. ~C.S. Lewis
You would think by now I would know better than to be thrown into a funk. Changed plans, last-second cancellations, sudden disruptions…after the last 2 years, why would I dare expect life to stick “to the script” on a long holiday weekend? It wasn’t even real snow! Thanks, sister nature.
What are you facing today that you wouldn’t have to deal with if you were in control? What are you wanting to avoid? Where have your plans fallen apart like snowmen made of slush? Do thoughts of the past fill you with regret, or visions of the future fill you with fear? If YOU could change a couple of things in YOUR life, what would they be?
If none of these questions hit home with you right now, someone near to you is in one of those moments. Life in this fallen world is often very hard—it is not functioning the way God intended. When this broken world alters the path of your life, it is tempting to think that your life is about nothing more than surveying the chaos. You feel powerless, out of control, with no idea what is coming around the corner next. As the cartoon sage Charlie Brown exclaims: “I think I’m losing control of the whole world!”.
BUT God's Word tells us the opposite—it says that the everyday difficulties and chaos around us are not the result of a world that is out of control, but the result of the reign of the One who is in complete control. In Acts 17 we are told how God made all of creation, “gives everyone life and breath and everything else”, does not require us to exist or be the I Am, that from one man He made all peoples on all the earth and He marked out our time in history, and that nothing is outside of His control.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being. ~Acts 17:27
The world is not out of control and chaotic; it is under the careful rule of a loving God. Paul says in Ephesians 1:22, “and God put all things under his [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head all things to the church”. Paul wanted us [me and you] to know that right NOW, Jesus rules over all things for the sake of his children. That is where peace is to be found.
Please let the elders know how we can be praying for you. I look forward to worshipping with you again this weekend—snow or not—God’s will be done.
FROM THE ELDERS—Joe Moore