Three Steps

Difficult times tend to bring our lives back into perspective. While times of strife, especially if they last too long, can twist our perspective of life to a negative, pessimistic view, it is the dangers of success and comfort that tend to make us forget what is really important, and what is temporary.

Think about the journey of Israel in their relationship with God: in a special way if you look at the times in which their leadership was basically in the hands of the people, instead of one strong individual regardless of being a judge, a prophet or a king. The book of Judges is actually a great example. If you haven’t read Judges carefully you may be surprise with the amount of very explicit content that you will find there. It makes Games of Thrones look like an ABC for Kids special. But it is a long and often painful succession of Israel becoming too comfortable in their own success, forgetting about God, finding themselves in trouble with foreign invading powers as a consequence of their sin, and seeing God delivering them once they repented. But soon another generation will rise that knew only blessing and victory and they will repeat the same mistakes of the past generations. Rinse and repeat.

In strange but not unexpected ways, it is in times of difficulty and challenges, often when they are beyond our capability of management or fight, that we find ourselves considering the big questions of life and all the consequences of it. It is in times of financial strife that we reconsider our priorities and very often find ourselves capable of living with less, and learning how to enjoy the little things in life that are truly important… even learning to see God as our provider at levels that we never knew when we depended only on our own work and effort. Hopefully after those difficult times passed, we will continue to acknowledge God as the one who owns the earth and every resource on it, even those that we will find in our hands at times.

It is in times when we find ourselves under government that we disagree with that we are challenged to actually pray for them, honour them and show them respect. It is easy to do those things when government is doing things the way we think from our lofty places of experience and understanding that they should be doing. But when we don’t agree, when we feel betrayed or angered, those are times in which suddenly theology finds correction, our claims find more balance, our loyalties are rearranged so the important things are actually treated as important.

It is in times when our faith is challenged, either by the journeys in which we find ourselves, or by the culture around us, or by changes at the church, or by circumstances around us, that we find ourselves shaking the apathy and the easy answers of the easy times and look deeper into our faith, our convictions, our creeds… and it is usually in those times that we return to our basics, to the essential and the central in our faith. On those times in which our faith is tested, we shake the things that are not important and we centre ourselves again in the heart of the Gospel. I often say that churches that spend too much times and effort and resources discussing things like the colour of the walls or the decoration of the building or the clothes of people at the platform or the accent of the pastor… need to find themselves facing real challenges in order to return to being a church, and not just a religious association of people.

It is in times when we face the end of our lives, either by the passing of time or by the arrival of a disease or a pandemic, that we consider the questions about eternity in a very different way. I can’t tell you how many times since I arrived at Ballina I have had the honour and privilege of visiting people at hospitals and nursing homes, especially when the time of death approaches. Some are afraid, some are unsure, some are expectant, some are ready. We talk about life, faith, their journeys and what may be coming next. Sometimes the conversation touches the issue of regrets. Yes, we try to say that we live without regrets, but when the final steps arrive, it is common to see the bravado lift and a new sense of honesty and transparency take place. I have never heard anyone regretting not buying a bigger house or a newer car, regretting not buying more clothes or spending more time at work… but we often talk about the regrets of being too distracted, too busy, too unfocused on what really matters. And sometimes we put more on those last conversations, our last goodbyes, than in hundreds of prior conversations. We say more because we mean what we say, because we know that time isn’t on our side. Sometimes we are gifted with the opportunities to make amends, to release and receive forgiveness, to put things in the right place one last time.

It on those difficult times when our faith becomes real. C.S. Lewis said “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

When we look at this life from the perspective of eternity, we learn how to complain less and how to become more aware of what is peripheral and what is essential. But the challenge for us is not to wait until the difficulties and challenges of life arrive to put things in the right place. We need to renew our mind through Scripture and worship and prayer and communion so we live with the perspective of heaven at every single step; so when the difficult times arrive we are better prepared for them. It won’t make them easier, but it will make persevering though them more achievable. The challenge is not to wait for a financial crisis in order to acknowledge God as our provider and to learn to be generous as he is generous in every step of the way. The challenge is not to wait for bad government in order to understand that our true citizenship is in heaven and our true allegiance is to God’s Kingdom, so we don’t lose our prophetic voice by being committed to men and their limited visions. The challenge is not to wait for persecution or resistance to gain understanding that we are called to live in counterculture. This means that persecution and resistance is to be expected, and is in popularity and acceptance that we may see danger or signs of complacency. The challenge is not to wait until life is coming to an end to start truly living, truly loving, truly forgiving, truly building a legacy that will not be taken away by time - to build what lasts for eternity.

So how do we deal with the passing into a new year, how do we move from 2020?

I won’t dare to say that I have the ultimate answer or the perfect formula. After 2020 I think we all learnt how to take things a bit lighter, and to acknowledge the incredible power of the unexpected. Now that we have thrown away our formulas and systems, let’s not hurry into writing new perfect plans and formulas for the times… the great challenge is to remain humble once attained! But I would like to suggest three steps to help us in the journey. This is not infallible and is far from complete, but maybe it is a way to start, the first steps into the new journey.

The first step is to lament. To take the time to grieve, to cry, to protest, to let those feelings flow. We have all lost so much. We lost loved ones. We lost time that is not coming back and with that time we lost conversations, we lost stories, we lost laughs. We lost hope at times, specially hope in humanity and with that loss we grieve again. We found ourselves disappointed, frustrated, angered, hurt. So we need to take time to lament. We need to find space for grief. We need to do it because if we don’t, those feelings will consume us from inside. Proverbs 15.13 says “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” And no amount of makeup or shopping can hide a crushed spirit. We must learn to lament and cry and grieve as individuals, as families, as congregations, as communities. And the church must be a place in which people are free and welcome not to be OK, not to be whole, not to be “blessed”. We must learn how to be a place where faith welcomes every aspect of the human journey, not a place of denial. Take your lament to God, share it with a good friend, learn how to lament your own way, whatever it means to you.

The second step is to spend time in thanksgiving. A big part of regaining perspective is to recognise that even in the hardest of times there are things to be grateful for. We may have faced challenges, strive and many battles, but we may have found also comfort, friendship, loyalty, hope, reasons to smile, a shoulder to cry on, a table to share, a voice to encourage us, reasons to continue. At the end of the day, God is always faithful, God is always good, God is always trustworthy, he is always for us even when we don’t understand. My invitation for you, therefore, is to spend time remembering, recollecting, in the words of Lamentations “bringing back to memory that which brings us hope.” And then present it in thanksgiving, in private and maybe sometimes while you are sharing with people. Complaining and gossip are highly contagious; they require more than a mask and 6 feet to avoid them and their nasty effects - so let’s share on thanksgiving and gratitude and praise and encouragement, let’s share on good humour and words of hope and life - let’s use the power of the tongue in ways that blesses people, makes their journeys easier, and by doing that I believe that something will shift in our hearts, in the hearts of those listening to us, and hopefully in the voices heard in our communities.

The last step is to learn to let go, and move on. We need grace and strength to recognise that some things are gone for good, as we have to live now with the awareness that some people are gone  as well - that we are going to them, but not quite yet. That society has changed, maybe in ways that hurt us or disappoint us, but there is no going back - at the same time that we need to learn how to believe that some aspects of society need to return. Is the old serenity prayers, in discerning what to accept and what to fight for. We need to let go of control, because we should have learnt that no amount of technology or advancements has freed us from fear, from anger, from division and from anxiety about the future. We still fall on the same old traps of greed and pride, war and conflict, divisions and hunger for power. We need to let go of our ways because the new times will require new ways – though the new ways must include good old commitment, perseverance and devotion. And we need to move on to the new things that God has for each one of us and also for us as congregation.

 Isaiah 42 says:

 8“I am the Lord; that is my name!
    I will not yield my glory to another
    or my praise to idols.
⁹ See, the former things have taken place,
    and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
    I announce them to you.”

He won’t give his praise to idols - but don’t get caught thinking about statues and saints or scenes from old movies depicting old religions. The idols of our days are still money, greed, selfishness, pride, religious pride… but there are new ones that have returned or have come anew, as nationalistic pride, racial pride, hate in all sorts of discriminations, there is a new generation that worships apathy and indifference, at the same time that judgement has risen to a whole new level, bullying is taking new forms every day. We can hope for a better community going forward but the cracks are painfully obvious in our world. And it’s in times like these that we must rise to face the challenges ahead, not linger in what used to be.

May the past inspire us, but not limit us.

May the past give us hope and hints, but allow for creativity and innovation.

May the present bring new opportunities and as healing comes to us, may it actually come to all of us. May we continue to fight, in any way we can, until everyone has the opportunity to experience life as God intends for each one of us. There is much to be done, and we need to be free in order to take the challenges head on.

So let’s lament and grieve and cry and protest.

And let’s remember and say thanks, and live in gratitude, and praise aloud with voices that bring life and light and encouragement and hope.

Let’s remember the last verse in Romans 12:

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let go from anything that is holding us back so we can embrace the times ahead.