Last week I focused on faith and how to lean on our faith in times of crisis. I used my experience from Rose Brooks Center to talk about domestic violence, gun control and action needed in our city and I talked about the faith of the Israelites as they settled into the promise land and Joshua asked them over and over again if they will serve the Lord. They all said yes because they had faith.
This week I am preaching on Finding Thanksgiving. How in a world filled with despair and constant pain to do we find thanksgiving? How do we be thankful for what we have when others have so little?
I believe we are all called to be disciples of Christ. To love one another, to honor one another and to serve one another. I believe that we are all put in this world for a reason. Mine is to serve the people of God as a Pastor and to preach God's word.
I am finding it to be challenging this week. How to find words different than I did last week and to still proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I was listening to music this afternoon and the song "Up to The Mountain" came on. I have heard this song many times but something about it really spoke to me today.
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice, oh
Oh, come and then go, come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so
The peaceful valley
Just over the mountain
The peaceful valley
Few come to know
I may never get there
Ever in this lifetime
But sooner or later
It's there I will go
Sooner or later
It's there I will go
We are all living in this peaceful valley. But as the words say "few come to know, I may never get there ever in this lifetime....sooner or later it's there I will go" This valley is the kingdom of Heaven right here on earth. The kingdom that all of us are welcomed into yet we push it away. We push away God out of fear. We blame God for the destruction and despair in the world and many of us think all of "God" stuff is just bullshit.
But here is what I will tell you. We are all God's children. Born in God's kingdom to serve one another, to love another and to be in full relationship with God. Some of us will never get there in this lifetime but we will all be there together one day.
Moses went up to the mountain and saw the promised land. The land he risked his life to get his people to. The land promised to him, Jacob, Noah and Abraham. The land of milk and honey. He finally made it yet he didn't go. He passed away on top of that mountain looking at the beautiful life he led his people to. There is beauty in that story.
Beauty in the stories of all the people that have fought for the rights of others and didn't get to see the outcome.
Our world is beautiful. Our world is full of abundance and our world is full of God, even in you aren't able to see it.
Find your Thanksgiving this week. Go find what you are truly thankful for and thank God for this beautiful, messy, amazing life you are living.
