Weekly Word
“I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121
The sun had just risen on September 11, 2001. Two days earlier we had rallied for the Fall and used, for the first time, our new gym, kitchen, nursery, and Sunday School wing. The sermon title on September 9th was “The world will never be the same.” The words were unintentionally prophetic.
Seventeen years have passed now. I am quite sure that there has never been a seventeen-year period in human history with more dramatic change. The sweeping change is unparalleled. Our nation is not the same. The world has changed, technology companies have changed our economy, social media has transformed the culture, travel is more complicated, churches and service clubs are closing. The younger generations have been raised with constant war and a fear of terrorism. We are more connected and less intimate than ever before.
The seventeen years have passed so quickly. The man in the mirror sports more wrinkles now. There can be no denying the march of time, the changing of the seasons, the passing of the generations. We are dust and to dust we shall return. What will the next seventeen years hold? Will we survive the next seventeen? There are precious few guarantees.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the marker of heaven and earth.”
Everything in life is changing, sifting and decaying, but God is faithful. God is with us. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We have nowhere to turn but to God. Our hope is not found in national security, financial security, or the latest workout program.
My help comes from the Lord. Seventeen years later that has not changed. Three thousand years after the Psalms were penned, that has not changed.
I will see you this Sunday in Church. That’s right, I am showing up this Sunday. Wear your tee-shirts and put yourself in the path of the Gospel.
Love,
Pastor Jim
