Thoughts for These Times (Page 2)

Dear Friends, What’s the horizon of this shutdown?  It seems to keep expanding – two weeks, a month, two months, three months.  We have tried to stay positive –as we should! – about how God is working, what we are learning, and how we can serve others.  But now we plod into week three (or is it four?).  The cumulative strain of missed opportunities, contracted lives, financial hardships, and maybe illness among loved ones weighs on us.  We wish we…

Dear Friends, Learning to lose gracefully is one of our earliest and hardest lessons.  As kids, when we lost at Sorry! or Chutes and Ladders, we may have wanted to flip the board in a rage.  Maybe sometimes we did!  Growing a little older, we had to learn to say “good game” to sports teams that beat us.  And as we have matured as Christians, we have grappled with what Paul said – “I know how to be brought low,…

Dear Friends, Right now, in God’s providence, we have landed in a period of enforced isolation.  We no longer enjoy the face to face contact with friends in different spheres of our lives – particularly in church.  We miss meeting together as a body, shaking hands, hugging, singing together, taking the Lord’s Supper, and enjoying coffee and conversation in the fellowship hall.  This period of isolation comes with its challenges. (This video from me has some additional encouragement about our…