Dear Friends in Christ,
As I write this letter it is about one week after my knee surgery. As I promised in my sermon the week before surgery, I have been using this time as Sabbath. It has been a time of rest and renewal not only for my body but for my soul as well.
First I have become more thankful. My surgery went incredibly well. So I thank God for God’s healing presence and for providing an incredible surgeon to do the work. I have received so many good wishes, cards and even a check so I could buy some healthy fruit to help my recovery. I am so thankful that I am a part of a Christian community that offers such an incredible image of what the love of Christ is all about. I am thankful for my immediate family who has been here caring for me amidst all their other responsibilities. And I am thankful for each day and the joys and challenges that it brings. As people of God, we are called to live with thankful hearts and this time of Sabbath – of stopping and resting – is teaching me the lesson of thankfulness once more.
It has also been a time of remembering that the ways of the kingdom are so different from the ways of the world. You get to watch a lot of news as you sit around recovering. Much of it is painful as people criticize, hurt, abuse and use one another. But the news story that caught my attention the most was different. It was the story of people from around the world working together to save 12 young soccer players and their coach who were trapped in a cave in Thailand. Helpless, they were helped and uplifted by a world of love.
Sitting and watching and listening I realized this was an image of the kingdom to which Christ calls us. The world constantly tells us that we are to make it on our own and push ahead and never quit. There is some truth in all this. But life is so much more. It is so easy to become focused on overcoming others rather than be at one with each other. As I have moved through recovery after the surgery, I have had to learn again the lesson of humility and dependence. I couldn’t reach up on shelves at first to get things I needed. At first it was hard to stand and make food so I needed others. Physical therapists had to tell me how to move again and help me get my stride and movement right. Even getting dressed I needed a little help. Nick had to pull my socks on for me- strange to have your son dressing you. Roles do reverse sometimes. And it was good. I learned again that we were never meant to make it all by ourselves- but always in unity and love together. God has given us one another so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. As my body healed I realized how much we are a body as Paul says and how much our life together needs healing and renewal as well.
Jesus said we must become like children. And I in many ways felt like a child. I needed the love of others on many levels to recover life. Jesus was trying to tell us that such vulnerability is alright, that we were meant to be interdependent. And most importantly of all we were meant to remember our dependence on God. I am in touch with that again and it is good. Sabbath rest allowed me in many ways to get in touch once more with God’s priorities for us.
So what are you facing? I know many of you are in the midst of your own changes and struggles and challenges. I offer you these suggestions:
- Find time to rest in God and place the burdens you face now, and all burdens, in God’s hands.
- In the midst of all things as God’s people we give thanks. As Jesus prepared for his death he gave thanks and Paul offered thanks from the midst of prison? Is there something in your circumstances for which to offer thanks?
- Receive the love of God that comes in the love and care of another. To take help is not weak- it is the way it is meant to be. Be humble. And also be bold to give help in any way you can.
And be kind to yourself. The world does not depend on you or me. Pope John XXIII said to himself each night after his prayers, “But who governs the church, you or the Holy Spirit? Very well then, go to sleep, Anglo, and let the Holy Spirit govern while you rest.”
I have about another week of limited activity. There is some thing in me that just wants to jump up and get going. What will the world think of this lazy pastor? But faith in God is in many ways about waiting on the Lord. I am doing what I can: exercises, praying, reading and finding joy. God will handle it while I rest.
With love and appreciation,
Pastor Dave
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