From the pastor, 2023

From the pastor, 2023 - 2024

oct · nov · dec - jan · feb · mar · apr · may · jun

Beauty

Late summer and early fall bring to many a renewed and busier schedule. Children are off to school, young adults to college and university, activities and groups “start up” again. People are on the move.

Yet late summer and early fall also bring opportunities to view the beauty of the world in which we live. Many trees will be decked in the glorious splendour of their best colours. Ripened fields and orchards show forth the fruits of the earth in all their goodness and glory. The fragrance of late-blooming flowers and bushes fills the air.

To take in all these things, however, requires that we take time “to smell the roses”. An early-morning or late-evening walk through the neighbourhood or on a trail or pathway, or even a short hike along a nearby stream or lake, gives us an opportunity to look at and appreciate the beauty of God amid His creation which is all around us.

“Beauty” is something which the human spirit is drawn toward, and since we have been created in the image of God, beauty is one of God’s characteristics, but not likely one about which we often think.

The psalmist in Psalm 27, verse 4, says: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” It makes logical sense that if God is beautiful, and we are made in His likeness, each of us is beautiful. This is the basis of our identity and worth. But to truly embrace this, one must be born again of the Spirit of God, who restores that beauty. When one becomes a Christian, a Christ-follower, one who bears the image of Christ, the contrast between the ugliness of sin and the beauty of righteousness is like the difference between darkness and light. “Filthy rags”(Isaiah 64:6) and “ashes” (Isaiah 61:3) gives way to “a crown of beauty” and “a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3,10)

Again, Psalm 50 begins, “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.” (verses 1,2). God’s dwelling place, amid Zion — the community of His people — is described as being “perfect in beauty”. Do we think of the church of Jesus Christ as being the embodiment of “beauty”? It is, by the grace of God.

Too often we are “too busy”. We are too busy to stop and “smell the roses”, and simply rejoice in their beauty. As the fall comes on, let us look around and “see” the beauty of God in His creation. This is in part why we are been given eyes to see!

We are also too often too busy to notice the beauty in one another within the family and fellowship of the church. Each man, woman, and child in whom the Spirit of God has given new birth as followers of Jesus Christ is a recreated person of beauty, possessing a restored God-like image. Together, the church as the body of Christ shows the saving, sanctifying love of God in action, as we care for one another, appreciating each other’s God-given gifts, and spurring each other on to love and good deeds. As we reconnect this fall, let us look around us, and see the beauty of God reflected in the faces, the hands and the feet, the minds nd hearts of those who are fellow pilgrims, on the way as those following and serving Jesus.

God is at work, sustaining and redeeming both His creation and His adopted sons and daughters. In the passage that foretold the coming of Jesus on what we celebrate as Palm Sunday, the one that talks about the king being “gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9), the prophet then says of the flock of His people: “They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be!” (Zechariah 9:1617, NIV)

Your pastor, seeing and celebrating beauty: in creation, in God’s people, and in God Himself,

James T. Hurd

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Thanksgiving

Psalm 30:12 - “O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.” (NIV)

Can we echo the words of the psalmist?

Depending on which English version one uses, the word “thanks” or “thankful” or “thanksgiving” appears about 140 times in the Bible.

From the book of Leviticus in the law (Torah) of the Old Testament right through to the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament, the giving of thanks is held up as both our calling and the source of blessing. Almost all the references refer to God as the one to whom thanks is expressed. To be truly thankful, one is in truth expressing thanks to God, and is thus in a personal relationship with God.

To be thankful is to be blessed. To express thanks is to celebrate. The directions in Leviticus 7 for presenting an offering of thanksgiving make plain that the offering is to be eaten on the day of its presentation:

“If he offers it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering he is to offer cakes of bread made without yeast and mixed with oil, wafers made without yeast and spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil. Along with his fellowship offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of bread made with yeast. He is to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings. The meat of his fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; he must leave none of it till morning.” (Revelation 7:11-15,NIV)

Jesus, when responding to the leper who was one of ten cleansed and healed of that disease, notes that it was one, a Samaritan — who was afar off and often thought to be and treated as unwelcome in Israel — who returned to express thanks to Jesus for the gift of his healing. Jesus asks the pointed question, “Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:17, NIV)

Paul in writing to the church at Thessalonica says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NIV) Clearly thankfulness is a state of being, and the giving of thanks is a continual series of actions, not a onceayear or once-in-a-lifetime observance.

In announcing the final judgement and the eternal reign of Christ, the twentyfour elders around the throne of heaven worship God with these words: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was …” (Revelation 11:17, NIV)

Clearly, there is no end to the giving of thanks!

The Greek root from which we translate “thanks” is also the root from which we get the word “eucharist”, which is another name for the Lord’s Supper. Early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper “in remembrance” of his death, but equally “in thanksgiving” for his atoning life and death given by Jesus as the foundation for the gift of the forgiveness of our sins. We cannot rightly share in the Lord’s Supper without being thankful!

It is therefore appropriate that we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first Lord’s Day of October, one week in advance of our annual celebration of Thanksgiving.

Let us use the occasion that we mark as “Thanksgiving” here in Canada as a challenge to examine ourselves in the light of God’s mirror, i.e. the Scriptures of both testaments. Am I thankful? Do I give thanks? Do I continue to express thanks in the way I address God, and in the way I live?

Your pastor, grateful for a Saviour for Whom to be thankful, and challenged to live thankfully in all things,

James T. Hurd

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Peace

“O God of love, O King of peace, Make wars throughout the world to cease; The wrath of sinful man restrain; Give peace, O God, give peace again.”

The events of the past month drive me my knees, and lead me to grope for words to give voice to the longings of the heart for peace — peace that is both just and merciful. Once again, I turn to a hymn: this time to words by Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), penned long before the present conflicts, and indeed prior to either of the world wars.

God alone is Sovereign, and it is to God alone we must turn. He is the Prince of peace, and to find peace we must turn to Him.

Such words have given voice to the longings of many generations, and brought a sustaining peace to souls called to live on in the midst of war and tumult. The copy of The Book of Praise which belonged to my grandmother includes the pencilled date “Sept. 7/40” beside the words to “O God of love, O King of peace, make wars throughout the world to cease.” The date is significant: September 7, 1940 was not a Sunday, but a Saturday, and the date a year after the start of World War II on which the German air force began the bombing known as the Blitz of London, which continued for much of the next year, including 56 of 57 nights consecutively.

It was the practice of the editors of that edition of The Book of Praise, published in 1918, at the end of World War I, to preface each hymn with a text of Scripture, and the one selected for this hymn was “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 46:9, KJV)

Baker goes on in a subsequent verse of the hymn to sigh, but also to affirm in faith

“Whom shall we trust but Thee, O Lord?
Where rest but on Thy faithful word?
None ever called on Thee in vain;
Give peace, O God, give peace again.”

Remembrance observances, centred around November 11th and usually a time for many of us to give thanks for the sacrifices that led to peace, sadly this year take place amid a world that is not at peace. Indeed, peace is more and more elusive for more and more people — whether in the Middle East, eastern Europe, or in so many other parts of the world. If not in the grip of brutal warfare, as are so many places and peoples, the welfare of so many communities has been uprooted and disrupted by flood or fire, wind or earthquake. If afflicted with none of these, individuals and other communities suffer the effects of violence arising from unresolved conflicts deep within troubled minds, hearts, and families. Where does peace come from?

It is significant that the text, “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of earth”, comes from Psalm 46, because that psalm is a song of comfort given to all who would call upon God in time of trouble, and begins:

“God is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (Psalm 46:13, NIV)

Our help comes from the Lord, as the ancient Hebrew pilgrims asserted and repeated as they travelled to Jerusalem for the thriceannual festivals: “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:2, NIV)

It is to God we are called and invited to turn to find peace, and especially in the midst of troubling times, for the peace for which we long and seek is to be found in Him. In foretelling the birth of the promised Messiah, the prophet Isaiah announces: “His name shall be called … the Prince of peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). God came in Jesus to BE our peace — not merely to bring us peace, and certainly not peace as the world defines or tries so unsuccessfully to give us.

True peace for each of us springs from a reconciled relationship with God, offered freely to all who embrace Jesus Christ and rest in Him. “He himself is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14, NIV) Accepting the peace God brings us through Jesus leads us to be at peace with ourselves, which in turn leads us to live in peace with others.

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:26, NIV)

Paul, once Jesus’ enemy and persecutor, embraced Jesus as God’s Son and so came to be at peace with God and himself, and opened the way for peace with others. His parting words in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica are: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NIV) He knew and teaches us that God is both the source and the force of our peace.

Resting in the peace of the God of peace, and inviting all to do likewise,

James T. Hurd

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Balance

Isaiah 40:12 “ Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heaven? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” (NIV)

What do you want for Christmas? As a child, I recall a line from a song: “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” Children whose baby teeth have fallen out often long for their permanent replacements, especially the front ones, to grow into place.

Today, as an adult, living in a world moving and changing so fast, and amid socalled time pressures and others’ multiple expectations, I suspect that many, like me, seek balance. All I want for Christmas is balance.

“Work-life balance” is a cry and a cherished hope for many in the workforce. In the face of inflation affecting the costs of food and housing, a balanced household budget is an increasingly sought-after dream. Families with children pushed and pulled in all directions seek to find and maintain balanced schedules. Those charged with the nurture of children and the care of the elderly are challenged to balance time and resources, and often feel squeezed like the inside of a sandwich.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, there is an opportunity amid all the things that compete for our time and attention to focus on balance.

A balance measures the competing weights of two substances or things or ideas or actions. When one is too heavy, the other is too light, and life is out of balance.

The prophet Isaiah asked, “Who … has weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” Often the passage in Isaiah 40 evokes the majesty of God — His power and strength are understood to be so great as to lift up the mountains and weigh them on a set of scales, counterbalancing them perfectly with a similar, not an exact, amount of weight. Can we imagine God holding all the mountains and the hills in one hand, while measuring units of weight in the other hand? God is all powerful, but He is also perfectly balanced.

What if we viewed our place and role in life as seeking to imitate God’s example in being balanced? Would any of the following thoughts or images help?

The wise one in Ecclesiastes tells us that “there is a time for everything”.

How might we balance our lives? It is true that all of the things mentioned in Ecclesiastes 3:18 have their time and place, but the balance God designs might be better realized with …

More peace, less war
More love, less hate
More silence, less noise
More mending, less tearing
More keeping, less throwing away
More searching, less giving up
More welcoming, less dismissing
More sharing, less hoarding
More dancing, less mourning
More laughing, less crying
More building, less demolishing
More healing, less killing
More planting, less pulling up
More living, less dying

Adding to the list above (which was derived from reflecting on Ecclesiastes 3:18 backwards), we might add:

More patience, less hurry
More kindness, less criticism
More humility, less pride
More silence, less noise
More stillness, less motion
More service for others, less self-centredness
More giving, less getting

Isaiah concludes his famous chapter, “They who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Your pastor, longing and praying for balance (more than I ever did for two front teeth),

James T. Hurd

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What Can I Say?

If you were charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Among some people, this is a popular question. Among others, it is a very challenging one.

Porcius Festus, the Roman governor, presented the apostle Paul to King Agrippa, prior to Paul’s going to Rome to appear before Caesar. In making the presentation, Festus declared,

“I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. For I think it is unreasonable to send on a prisoner without specifying the charges against him.” (Acts 25:26-27, NIV)

This passage offers, from the example of a Roman civil governor and his encounter with the Christian missionary Paul, a challenge to be clear and truthful about what we say about others. Rather than relying on second- or third-hand information, or “rumours”, it is best to know firsthand what someone says or does — before repeating that to others.

We are thus challenged to know one another — personally. In this digital and online age, “likes” or “stars” or other markers of “feedback” often indicate whether a product or service or experience is judged to be good or not. Often these markers are anonymous, and the aggregate count can appear overwhelmingly to sway or settle the matter, especially if the recommendations are negative. It is better, though, to hear a single, informed recommendation from a person whom we know and whose judgement we trust when deciding how to evaluate whatever it is that we might be considering.

How much more important it is when dealing with people rather than products that our evaluations and decisions be based on firsthand testimony. It is helpful when our observations are corroborated those of others; hence employers seek references for prospective employees.

Many individuals are concerned about, and even consumed by, the question, “What do others think of me?” Mental and spiritual health would be better served by asking instead, “What can I say about others that builds up and truthfully enhances their reputation?”

Our first priority, though, is to address a more basic question: What evidence do we give by our words and show in our deeds that we belong to Jesus? Do our words and deeds enhance Jesus’ reputation? Surely if in truth we are His followers, as Christians claim to be, then the evidence of our lives should build up, enhance, and further Jesus’ own reputation.

To the church in Corinth, beset by divisions and factions that focused on human reputations rather on Christ, Paul makes it clear that he cared very little about what others said of him (1 Corinthians 4:3), but knew that God’s judgements are complete and true and therefore are the ones that really matter. Paul's mental and spiritual peace and strength were rooted in Christ, and he says at the outset of his testimony to Rome that his identity is “a servant of Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:1).

Our calling is first to love and serve Jesus Christ, and we will advance His honour as we then seek to build and further by our lives and witness the reputations of other Christian believers. In an age “when truth is hard to follow, and fact is hard to find” (as Miriam Drury puts it) — but precious and valuable — let us strive “to build each other up” (I Thessalonians 5:11, NIV), and in the steps of Paul, to “follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1, NIV).

Your pastor, in truth and in Christ,

James T. Hurd

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An Anniversary (March 2024)

The year 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of Parkwood Church.

It was on September 20, 1964, that a group of Christians first gathered in Parkwood Hills Public School to worship together, and commence a witness and outreach to the surrounding community. With the leadership of Ronald Balston, who was employed in the RCAF training college but who was also an ordained presbyterian minister, a congregation was gathered and equipped, and early in 1965 was formally constituted as Parkwood Presbyterian Church.

At our most recent meeting, the elders of the congregation resolved that we will aim to mark this significant 60th anniversary on September 22, 2024, which this year is the closest Lord’s Day to September 20th.

Meaningfully marking a milestone in the congregation’s history involves much more than simply observing a date. Especially for those of us who were not here in 1964, but also for those who were, the anniversary is an opportunity to look in three directions: to the past, to learn and remember what was; to the present, to celebrate and cherish what is; and to the future, to hope and work for what is yet to be.

God provides us with guidance in how best to observe significant anniversaries and to plan for future ones. In the book of Joshua, when the ancient Hebrews crossed the Jordan River into the promised land, the Lord said to Joshua,

“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:27, NIV)

By way of introduction to our observance of the 60th anniversary of Parkwood Church, let us consider:

What questions might we best help our children, and the children in the congregation, to ask — so that they may learn about the history of what God has done among and through the witness of Christians here to Jesus?

What historical markers do we have, and to which we can point, to help answer those questions and to celebrate what God has done and is still doing through the life and witness of Parkwood Church?

What markers or symbols of our present life together do we need to gather and preserve for future generations and celebrations?

What might God be preparing us, and those whom He will yet gather as followers of Jesus, to do in the future as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ?

I invite all of us, individually and collectively, to ponder these questions as we plan for our observance and celebration of the 60th anniversary of Parkwood Church, not simply on one day in September, but throughout the whole of the next year.

For some if not all of us, the present and rapidly changing world is a challenging time, and the future not only unknown but scary.

Let us remember that God guides the future as well as the past. When the ancient Hebrews were being carried off from the promised land in to captivity in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah was entrusted with this message of assurance and hope:

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:1014, NIV)

Your pastor, thankful for God’s purposes, plans, and preservation of His people — past, present, and future,

James T. Hurd

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Life and Death (April 2024)

“Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NIV)

As we mark Easter in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four (2024), the world in which we live is — to put it mildly — struggling …

Death and destruction are the reigning realities in so many places: Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Palestine, Haiti, and the list goes on …

War and terror upend and uproot lives, families, and communities, compelling millions of people to migrate and seek refuge …

Fires and floods, earthquakes and tornadoes, leave behind decimated landscapes that impair or make impossible the sustaining of life …

Disease, depression and despair lead many downward into a cycle of drug abuse and addiction …

Disillusion with life leads to disrespect for life, which leads many to choose death, rather than life.

Before we allow such a catalogue to close the curtain on our socalled enlightened age, let us recall that after 400 years of bondage, and after 40 more years of wilderness wanderings, God through Moses set before the ancient Hebrew people a choice and an opportunity:

“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life …” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20, NIV)

Life is here said to be a conscious, deliberate choice — not simply something that “happens”.

Life is also bound up with choosing God: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.

Likewise, life is also bound up with choosing neighbour: to love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus affirmed in Luke 10:25 that the one who was seeking the inheritance of life answered his own question correctly by pointing to the connection between God and life, and neighbour and self.

None of this is possible, however, without the Holy Spirit at work within and among us. It is the Spirit — the Breath of God — who breathes life into us, and who through faith in Jesus Christ breathes new life into each one who is otherwise “dead in transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1, NIV) “When you were dead in your sins … God made you alive with Christ: He forgave us all our sins.” (Colossians 2:13, NIV)

At Easter, we not only remember the resurrection — the return of Jesus from the dead — but we celebrate the return of life, and the real opportunity for us to once again choose life. Let us choose to embrace the life God offers, through faith in Jesus Christ. We will live, as Christ lives in us and through us and for us and among us.

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NIV)

Your pastor, living in the light of Easter, and seeking to offer a world dwelling in the darkness of death the Light of Life,

James T. Hurd

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Quenching thirst (May 2024)

Even more than food, water is essential to sustaining life.

God uses water to sustain life. Not only is this true in the physical sense, but it is also true in the spiritual sense.

In God’s name, the prophet Isaiah announced: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters …" (Isaiah 55:1)

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)

Clearly, God intends not only to satisfy the physical needs of our bodies by providing us with water to drink and to wash, but also to satisfy the spiritual needs of our souls for meaning and purpose.

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:2)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

Let us reflect for a moment on the water that quenches our physical thirst, and draw some applications to the water that satisfies our spiritual thirst.

Canada is blessed with more fresh water than any place on earth.

Yet we are increasingly more and more a spiritually thirsty people — as we see more and more people struggling with mental distress, social disconnection, addictive behaviours, and even despairing of life itself.

In the physical world, in recent years, there has been a disconnect between the sources of water and those who need to drink it. The disconnect is best symbolized in the plastic water bottle. Plastic bottles were only introduced in 1947 — within the lifetime of many people still alive. Today, there are debates about the long-term consequences: under what conditions does the plastic leach chemicals into the contents of the bottle, and what happens to the plastic bottles when they are discarded? Regardless of the outcome or resolution of those debates, the fact remains that the “bottle” introduces an unnatural “barrier” between the original source of the water and the one whose thirst is quenched by drinking it.

Although it may not be possible for everyone to live “near the water”, there are great benefits to having close and easy access to fresh, clean water.

Far more, though, are the benefits of having close and easy access to the Source of our spiritual water. Such access is available and accessible to all who know Jesus, and who are vitally and intimately connected to Him through the Holy Spirit.

Have we suffered from trying to store spiritual water in bottles? Do we think we can confine or preserve God’s Spirit in a container, and simply open the container and pull Him out when we feel the need? Are the “containers” piling up and contaminating the natural environment in which God lives and intends us to live in a close and vital connection with the One who creates, sustains, and continuously refreshes our souls?

As we have opportunity to connect with the well-watered land around us, let us also drink deeply from the well of God’s Spirit, abundantly present in the life of Jesus and all that He has taught and continues to teach us.

Your pastor, drinking from the water of the Word,

James T. Hurd

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Overwhelmed? (June 2024)

Information overload is a present and growing reality for many people today — but it is not just information which is so abundant and easily buries us under its volume and weight. The sad and heavy burdens that news and information bring can and often do lead to mental, emotional, and even spiritual distress. We become aware of events and circumstances affecting others, and the suffering of others affects us, even when we are physically removed from the situations of which we are informed in this “information age”.

What to do? How to cope? How can hearts that are touched by the news and images of people suffering from flood, fire, earthquake, tornado, violence, or war not fail to lead us to distress, depression, and despair?

Some suggestions:

First, let us go to the Bible — the word of God — for both comfort and wisdom. Here especially the book of Psalms can be very helpful, as we discover that ordinary mortals like ourselves have in former days and ages experienced the same crises, faced similar uncertainties, and felt the same pressures.

Part of the Scottish Psalter’s metrical paraphrase of Psalm 61 comes easily to mind:

What time my heart is overwhelmed and in perplexity
Do Thou me lead unto the Rock that higher is than I.

Our modern English translation puts verses 1 and 2 like this: “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (NIV)

We turn to God, in both song and in prayer, to give voice to the deepest longings and yearnings of our hearts. We can “pour out” our sadness, our grief, and our confusion to an all-knowing God who graciously and patiently listens. Let God’s word lead us to pray.

Second, we can lay at Jesus’ feet burdens that, besides being too heavy for us to bear, were never intended to be ours to carry in the first place. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

We have a tendency with respect to both guilt and work to take on too much. The psalmist David says, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” (Psalm 38:4) God’s servant Moses had to be told plainly by his father-in-law Jethro, “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” (Exodus 18:18)

The key to solving the first problem — guilt — is to admit and confess our sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Our sins are not only the ones we have personally committed. We are party to many corporate and communal sins both past and present, and part of our despair often stems from either a conscious or even unconscious awareness that we are part of the problem. Owning such, and confessing such, enables us to experience God’s forgiveness and to be free of such burdens.

The key to solving the second — overwork — is to recognize that others share the burden and the work. The whole of the wellbeing of society does not rest upon me! The witness of the Christian community to Jesus and His gospel is not mine alone. All the work is not assigned to me! Paul reminds us that although there is one Spirit, there are a variety of gifts distributed to all the members of church as the body of Christ, and that the whole body “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”. (Ephesians 4:16)

Third, we do well to remember that coupled with Jesus’ invitation to lay down our burdens and leave them with Him is His affirmation and promise that the work He rightly assigns us to do is not designed to overwhelm us but to satisfy us. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for … you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) The tasks assigned us and the burdens given us to carry are appointed graciously by God, to be accomplished in the strength He provides. Even Paul, having asked that a particular problem — quite possibly a vexing medical condition — be instantly solved and removed, was assured by God that “My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Lastly, we are invited to face all the circumstances of our lives in a broken and fallen world with a spirit of gratitude. “Give thanks in all circumstances” is the wise counsel given us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. Thankfulness lifts the heart. A conscious awareness of what we positively have helps us to hold a healthier perspective on what is lacking, as we long for the future day when sin is no more and all is made perfect.

Your pastor, beginning the day thankful for new mercies, and resting each evening in God’s faithfulness,

James T. Hurd

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