5 The Lord is merciful and righteous; our God is compassionate.
6 The Lord protects simple folk; he saves me whenever I am brought down.
7 I tell myself, you can be at peace again because the Lord has been good to you.
(Psalm 116:5-7)
Good Day Family,
Good and Compassionate God
God is good. What does that mean? I think the above passage of scripture helps amplify this statement with specifics. God demonstrates mercy, which means we don’t get what we deserve. God bears our burdens and lightens our loads. God is righteous—our standard of being and the One who makes us righteous and holy. God protects and saves. God has been good, God is good, and God will be good. This is the assurance that gives us peace.
Real peace allows us to see the hope in a seemingly hopeless situation because we have a God who is able to do all things. Real peace opens the door to even challenging and difficult conversations because our goal isn’t to avoid conflict but to resolve conflict.
I think that is why, after a few weeks of pain and despair, I have been so hopeful this last week. My hope is always in Jesus and in the abundant love of God. But, there are times, when it seems that we’ll have to wait until “when we all get to heaven” as the song says. We must not forget, however, that when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus didn’t tell them to wait to get to heaven. He told them to pray for heaven on earth.
That is God’s will for us. That even in this life, we will experience the joy of the beloved community. Where our differences aren’t erased, but they are celebrated and recognized as the gift from God that they truly are. Our diversity adds so much to our lives when we are receptive to occasional discomfort in exchange for blessed understanding, community, and harmony among the children of God.
This Sunday evening, June 14 at 6:30 pm, Living Water Association will host a Sacred Conversation: Hope in the Night to discuss our faithful response to the times in which we live. It will be held on Zoom with a dial-in option. The flyer and resource document are included below. I will be one of the invited participants help to launch the dialogue, but it will primarily be an information conversation. I hope you can join us.
In persistent hope,
Be well,
Pastor Cheryl