Sunday Retrospect

 

As I sit in my little living room looking out the window, I’m smiling as the words of my pastor ring in my heart and mind from this morning’s service.

There is no way for me to tell you which parts were best because all of it was inspiring. I could never choose just one. But I can mention a few points that may bless you as they did me today.

Transition is the dying out of one thing and the bringing in of another... as my pastor gave this definition of the word transition, I realized just how relevant it was for right now. Today. It’s only the middle of May, but I feel as though my life since January has been in one constant transition. Now that’s an oxymoron!

Learning to let go of the old and allow something new to move in is not easy. To be willing to change and be flexible, fluid or moldable, is challenging, to say the least. Take for instance the coronavirus. Not SARS or MERS, but a new one. COVID-19 is a strain of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Corona comes from the word crown. If you’ve seen any pictures of the virus strain under a microscope, you can see why. This little fellow has caused a lot of sicknesses and death over the last five months. It’s put the world in a tailspin. Self-quarantine, social distancing, face masks, shortages on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, closed businesses, working from home, the unemployment numbers growing, no proms, no graduations, no funerals, people dying, and on and on.

Talk about change. Words like adjustments, reversals, transformations, and even about-face, come to mind. My gramps might say we’ve been put through the wringer! The world who once feared bombs dropping, planes flying into buildings, and shootings in schools, restaurants, and places of employment had no idea what to expect.

It’s easy to forget that our world has experienced many infectious pandemics throughout its history. Just check the History Channel if you want a detailed outline. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, the bubonic plague (or Black Death), smallpox, etc…Of course in the early centuries, it was called a plague, not a pandemic. The Bubonic plague wiped out 1/3 of the world’s population. Now that’s crazy to think about.   Smallpox wiped out the Aztec Empire! Scary, right? 1 million people died of cholera in Russia. They called that a pandemic and that was just the first wave. Thank the Lord a vaccine was created in 1855, but it didn’t stop the third wave of cholera breaking out…  Don’t even get me started on the Spanish Flu and Russian Flu and the measle outbreaks… frightening information.

Shortly before I was born, the Asian Flu showed up. 14,000 people died in 6 months. The following year, the second wave of the Asian Flu hit, and over 1 million people died. Thank God a vaccine was developed for that as well. That’s just an overview taking us up to the ’80s. Then you have HIV/Aids, and SARS in 2003 (remember how it was spread from bats to cats to humans?) creepy.  I guess my point is that pandemics and infectious diseases are not something new to the world. Humans just tend to have short memories. So enough of my history of diseases…moving on.

I believe each of us can raise our hands and say, this has been a time of regrouping and readjusting our way of thinking or doing things. Physically speaking, I’m learning to keep my hands off of my face (much easier said than done). Spiritually speaking, I want the old to die out and the new to move in and take over. I want the dust blown off certain areas of my life. Most of the time the dust, per se, gets blown off pretty well when troubles come. Whether in my health, finances, relationships, or grandparenting. Every now and then, God allows our lives to get turned upside down and inside out. And as we get on our knees and cry out to him for help, He smiles and doesn’t necessarily fix the problem, but just simply stays with us through it. When we get to the other side of the trouble, we see growth, maturity, and a little bit more confidence.  God smiles and reminds us gently that He had a plan and it was all for the good.

Another highlight of today’s sermon was “show me where I’m at, Lord.” I remember hearing someone say along time ago, that “God’s Word will never change your life until you let it become personal.” That fits so perfectly with what my pastor said this morning about how the vision is being swallowed up in reality. I don’t want the Bible to be just a lot of great stories that happened 2,000 years ago. I want it to be real for me today. Right now in 2020. I want to see myself in the scriptures. I want the vision that God has for my life to become my reality. If that doesn’t happen, then something is wrong. Not with the vision or the plan, but with me. And that’s always something to think about.

Just a few more things that stood out to me today…”Don’t just read the Bible and walk away. Speak it; live it; teach it!” Wow, that’s powerful. How do I apply that to my life? I like to speak the promises of God out loud. That may seem silly since I live alone and work from home. I don’t have a whole lot of contact with other people, but when I’m in the privacy of my home or car, I talk to the Lord as if he’s right next to me. It makes it personal for me. Speaking the scripture out loud just seems to fill the room (or car) with an extra boost of faith. It’s not for anyone else, just my encouragement.

How do I live it? Only by the grace of God. Trust me. I fail miserably most days, but I don’t let that get me down. I pick myself up by the bootstraps, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and strive to do better. We will never be perfect while living on this Earth and in these bodies. But our hearts are longing to be like our heavenly Father, who is the only perfect One. I want to be like Him because I love Him. And I love Him because he loves me…unconditionally. I’m his child, and there is nothing that I could do that would ever separate me from his love. That and that alone, makes me love him even more. The only way that my life will be anything like his, is by allowing him to live through me. I certainly don’t have all the answers on how that works, but He does. He died for me because of my imperfections and sin. If I was perfect than he died in vain. A sinner needs a savior. And we are all sinners. I just accepted his sacrifice and was saved by his grace.

How do I teach it? I suppose for me, the best way to teach is to live. I don’t have young children any longer living at home to parent, or teach, but I do have 5 beautiful grandchildren. When they come to my home and we have sleepovers, I take those moments together and weave values, both spiritual and non-spiritual together. Honesty, kindness, listening, loving each other, respect, proper etiquette, good hygiene, responsibility, and courage. And so much more. Occasionally the Lord will grant a perfect teachable moment, and those are rare but precious. The older they get, the bigger and deeper and more complex their lives get, and I spend more time praying for each of them many times a day than I actually talk to them. I pray for their protection from harm, danger, sickness, diseases, and evil spirits that roam this earth. I pray they have a personal relationship with Jesus and that He becomes the one they know will never leave them or forsake them, ever! That’s how I teach what I believe.  Oh, and we sing, play games, read books, take walks, eat fun food and laugh a lot.

My last thought about today…”The watch won’t work until all the pieces are in place.”

I don’t want to be the one that keeps the watch from working. It’s all about placing. Where am I? Am I where I should be in God’s great plan for my life? I pray every day that I can hear that still small voice even through all the noise and static around me. I really don’t want to have to be smacked upside the head for him to get my attention. As a parent, I remember having to do that a few times to my own kids to get them to pay attention. My heavenly Father will do the same to me if I’m distracted and can’t see the enemy peering around the corner. Now that’s a good father. Loving us and guiding us through this journey called life so we can be prepared to live our real life. Our best life!

That’s all I have for today’s introspect of the Sunday Sermon. If the Lord wills, see you next Sunday,

 

Pam