Posted 5/14/08

This Sunday is the last Sunday for our Sunday morning Christian Education classes.  

We will honor those who have attended and those who have helped teach or provide leadership in some manner.  

Pastor Skip will be speaking on "The Brooding Spirit of God."  This message is based on Genesis 1: 1-2.

You are invited to attend a luncheon at First Presbyterian Church, Waterloo, at 11:15 a.m. this Sunday.  

Dr. John Haught from Georgetown University will be speaking on "God and the New Athiests."

"Feeling Like."

I rather like the story Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick once related from his own childhood days.  His father had said to his mother, upon leaving the house one Saturday in the morning hours: "Tell Harry that he can cut the grass today, if he feels like it."

Then, halfway down the walk, his father turned once more to add: "And tell Harry that he had better feel like it."

Well, in its own rather humorous way, there is something essential about life wrapped up in that.  For there is a difference between knowing we are supposed to do something, and 'feeling like" doing it.  There is a difference between a sense of obligation and a sense of generosity.  There is a difference between obedience and desire.  And the one of those weighs us down, while the other lifts us up.

Christianity says to us, you do not know God, if you know Him only as a sense of authority over your life.  Furthermore, you do not know God, if you merely believe intellectually that God is a God who cares and loves.  

You do not know God somehow at all, unless the same spirit of His authority and His love captivates you from within, so that you live knowing the spirit of it for yourself.  You do not know God, unless all this that we have been saying about Him becomes for you your own way of life and not an obligation imposed on you by the Church, or by the fear of death, or by anything else.

Paul van Dine, Not the Nature, But the Character of God - Trinity!, Cathedral Publishers.

OUTLASTING THE BLUES
2 SAMUEL 23:5

During a dark period of Abraham Lincoln's life, at the young age of 32, he wrote: "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me."

It's hard to believe these words were written by one of our nation's most significant leaders.

And it's hard to believe that years later this same despairing man was able to write: "The year that is drawing toward the close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. These bounties are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come."

Abraham Lincoln's early years were filled with failure. Yet, the final years of life, though certainly not free from struggle, were years of happiness, fulfillment, achievement, and success.  Because of his capacity to outlast the blues, Lincoln experienced -- in this life -- the enormity of God's blessing. He didn't give up hope, even when it seemed he had no reason to hope.

The same could be said for King David. As you read through the Psalms, you get a glimpse of his struggles and heartaches. (Psalm 10, 38, 102 come to mind; there are many, many more.) And though his life was not without tragedy, David ended his days enjoying the benefits of God's blessing in his life. In a phrase, David outlasted the blues.

His final words, recorded in 2 Samuel 23, were:  Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? (2 Samuel 23:5)

It's almost as if the reward for tenacity is that our problems eventually give up and leave us alone. We certainly see in scripture that clinging steadfastly to hope in God's mercy ultimately pays off far beyond our greatest hopes.

Today, you may be facing the anguish of Psalm 38 or 102. But there's more to your story than just what you are experiencing today. God will bring to fruition your salvation, full and complete. And he will grant your heart's desires. This gives us a reason to keep on. to outlast the blues.