To Trafford and Manor UMCs,
How are all of you holding up? I have been praying for the church during this time. One of the big challenges of this physical isolation has been the difficulty of making plans. When I have spoken with people in the past about how things are going, it is not uncommon to hear, “It’s tough, but I am taking things one day at a time.” That phrase, one day at a time, seems like such a no-brainer. We are a people that cannot experience tomorrow today. We can only tackle the problems that are right before us. But I have recently realized just how much I lived in the future. Being a pastor requires trying to figure out what tomorrow will be. Planning worship services and meetings becomes a normal part of the routine. That routine seeps into everyday life. Planning an outing with my family, wanting to know the weather for the next 10 days, needing an itinerary for tomorrow.
We now live in a time where many of us are experiencing a less predictable future. Sunday is worship, Tuesday is council meeting, Wednesday is Bible Study, Thursday is Choir, and Friday is craft night. That was something I could count on most of the time. But now it is no longer reliable. I have been trying to plan our next gatherings, but it seems I have been doing more postponing than anything. That is the time we are in. I have no idea how long this is going to last. I thought I was a person that took things a day at a time. Not having a set schedule has been challenging.
I have found that God often speaks to me in the middle of my complaining. Our scripture today is from Romans 8:1-17. Paul is teaching the Romans about the power and glory of God as seen through Jesus. Early in this text he speaks of the hope God’s power brings to us in our lives, then moves into the responsibility that hope challenges us with. I got stuck on 8:6. It reminded me of a sermon I had heard last week from a church that was streaming their service. The pastor closed his message with a quote from Max Lucado, “Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed you faith and your fears will starve.” There was a certain immediacy about the quote. It spoke about the future, but as a ramification of what we are doing today. Romans 8:6 says it another way, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” I have been so hung up on the fact that I cannot make a decent plan for a future that I have no idea about, that I have been neglectful of today.
The truth is clear. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I am not sure if we will be able to gather in person on Palm Sunday or even on Easter Sunday. But we serve a God that is so much bigger than those days. We serve the God of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. I encourage all of us to do what we can this day to feed our faith, to set our mind on the Spirit. In doing this we will be ready for tomorrow, we will have what we need to worship the Lord wherever we may find ourselves. And we will have such a celebration when we can gather together once again. I look forward to that day. In the meantime, keep praying, reading, growing and connecting with God and one another.
I love you and miss you.
PTL,
Pastor Justin Judy