Church Family Update - April 14, 2020

A Devotional Thought:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Philippians 4:4

In a moment of pastoral-self-pity I recently said this unhelpful phrase to Marco: “This is not what I signed up for.” What I meant was, I didn’t become a pastor so that I could preach to a camera and an empty room, do pastoral visitation over the phone and have committee meetings in my basement on my computer. 

The proper response to my statement is this: Well, tough. There was no sign-up sheet for this. Our farmers didn’t sign up to have the bottom fall out of their markets and our medical workers didn’t sign up for the rudeness from patients and the daily physical risk they’re putting themselves in and our teachers didn’t sign up for teaching from home via the internet and our retirees didn’t sign up to be housebound and our singles didn’t sign up for the loneliness and on and on the list goes. 

No one signed up for this. What I needed to be reminded of during that moment of self-pity is that God is under no obligation to obtain our permission before exposing us to difficult conditions. But He is under obligation to be faithful to His promises, which He always is. 

So here we are and it is another day and God has fresh mercies that are just for today. There is mercy available to you and to me for the specific circumstances we will face today. And there’s more mercy where that came from and it will be new again tomorrow and the next day. 

Joni Eareckson Tada said (and she probably wasn’t the first person to say this): "I cannot choose my circumstances but I can choose the way I respond to them." So today let’s choose faithfulness. Let’s choose to worship God and to serve one another. Let’s choose to be patient with one another. Today, let’s choose joy. 

Have a blessed, joyful day.

Pastor Jason