Facebook, TV… everyone seemed to be making jokes about the rapture.
Yet… did you check at 6:00 PM just to be sure nothing happened? (I did too.)
I confess to mixed reactions.
Like many, I made jokes but inside, I cringed over the media attention.
Is this the only way people know us as Christians?
Predicting the end of the world? Reading the Bible like a secret code book?
We’re often portrayed as strange and loony. Fewer and fewer people take us seriously.
These are not the best of days to proclaim: “I am a follower of Jesus Christ!”
Our churches struggle just to pay the bills and seldom have the resources or the energy to do much more than survive.
On our district we challenged ourselves with two questions:
How big is your dream? How good is your team?
At times, those questions seem out of reach. Our dreams don’t seem nearly big enough and there just doesn’t seem to be anyone around to help.
One of my colleagues in a message this week admitted to at times wanting to curl up on his living room rug and beg: “Take me home, Lord. Take me home.”
OK… before you suggest I stop writing and go take a “Happy Pill” there is a point to this.
In Psalm 16:8-11:
I know the LORD is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever. (Psalm 16:8-11)
OK. I admit, this was a tough week but…
“I know the Lord is always with me.”
Yes, at times Christians are portrayed poorly but God gives us opportunities every day to witness to the truth.
“I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.”
Sure, at times our churches will struggle to merely survive much less carry out the mission God has given us.
“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.”
Yesterday, May 21, I drove to the other end of the state to attend a worship service honoring a couple, Jan and Clayton Smith who both died within a month. They were dear friends of our family. We attended the same church together. Their three children were approximately the same ages as my sister and I, so we were all closely connected.
At the service, I listened to story after story of how Jan and Clayton persevered in the midst of an often difficult life.
Clayton was a fixer, happiest when he could be with his children or grandchildren fixing their computer.
Jan was the bundle of enthusiasm who always had something good to say about everyone. When the preacher asked the choir where she sang for over 40 years, what were her favorite hymns, they all immediately answered: “All of them.”
The grandchildren nearly all spoke or sang or played a musical instrument in dedication to their grandma and grandpa who loved them and encouraged them throughout their lives.
People in the church stood and spoke of the encouragement they received from Jan and Clayton during difficult times.
As I listened to story after story, I was reminded…
Our witness as Christians is not in attempting to explain or predict the rapture to come. It’s enough to believe that the rapture will come and to remember Jesus saying: “It is not for us to know the time or the place.”
Our witness as Christians is often at its best when we are struggling to pay the bills and merely survive because people see us dealing with crisis without panic but content with the knowledge that God will be with us even to the end of the age.
Our witness as a district is to continue looking for big dreams and to continue building good teams but to know that often our best witness is in those simple day to day interactions where no TV cameras will be recording but real lives will be influenced and ultimately changed.
Our real witness is to be reassured by the words of Psalm 16.
I know the LORD is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever. (Psalm 16:8-11)
May you know God’s presence in worship today.
May you know the Lord is always with you.
Do not be shaken for he is right beside you.
May your heart be glad and may you rejoice.
For God will not leave your soul among the dead.
God will show you the way of life, granting you the Joy of His presence and the pleasure of living with Him forever.
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