2020 is one for the books for sure. We have all been riding this ridiculous rollercoaster for months now and are likely worn thin by worry and anxiety. Our souls are disquieted by the uncertainty of the times. But amid these crises, I offer you comfort even as I have been comforted.
God is in control. God cares. God is creative.
Once upon a time, we all at some moment, confessed faith in Christ and yielded to His gracious call, and for many of us, this call has become a career. We have committed our lives to caring for the souls of others. I trust that in choosing to embrace this calling it was at the Spirit’s beckoning, or you would not be reading this note. So, I want to take a moment to remind you that while we do not get to control everything that comes our way, we do maintain control over our responses to these circumstances.
Choose joy.
I know it seems like nonsense to say such a thing, but what is the alternative? We have and are enduring seasons of loss, grief, disappointment, and sorrow. We have and are ‘feeling all the feelings’ (thanks Pastor Jen). But GOD is still in control. GOD has not ceased to care for us. True to her wise and creative character, she continues to create from the chaos beauty and order.
Choose joy.
Sense GOD’s care for you in this season. Every breath, every heartbeat, every eye blink; every moment is gift replete with opportunity. Every necessity, every responsibility, each challenge, and every single chore is pregnant with possibility. Even in stillness and stuckness, we have an opportunity to sense our own being, breathe, and be lifted to a new way of seeing through the compassionate eyes of our loving Creator.
Choose joy.
A curator assembles things and experiences from an array of possibilities for the enjoyment and consumption of others. A curator must have keen eyes and a deeper sensibility – that is a deeper creativity, that allows them to sense beauty and potential amid the mundane and perhaps even the profane. A curator must have faith that sees possibility.
Choose joy.
The Creator, out of chaos and formless void formed the universe, designed space and time for us, and beheld our unformed substance in our mother’s wombs and has written every single page of our lives. And even as the Creator surveys the calamity and collateral damage of human sinfulness, the Divine character remains unfailing; there is no shadow of turning – ever in control, ever caring, and always creating.
Choose joy.
Even when our hearts are consumed with the cares and issues of life, may we lift our eyes to encounter the Creator who suffers with us. Let us remember the chaos at Calvary, where we encounter our crucified Savior, who with His own body built a bridge, opened a portal, created a causeway across the restless angry seas of our existences into a redeemed reality – a realm of amazing possibilities. Let us recall the empty tomb and remember that GOD is still in control. GOD cares. GOD is ever creating.
As GOD’s servants, let us curate hopefulness out of this chaos. Let us mine meaning from the messiness of this moment. Let us curate the unlikely joy that marked the testimonies of the saints who precede us. Let us respond creatively to this moment. And let us curate these crises with confidence in the character of the One who is in control, the One who cares, and the One who is ever creating.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4
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