7-7-2023

Good Morning All,

     Galatians 6:2; “Help carry each other’s burdens. In this way you will follow Christ’s teachings.”  (GWT)

    One of the saddest things I hear from people is when they ask, “Why would God ever want me; why would he love me?”  The real simple answer is that God loves you dearly; that is his nature.  But why does he want you?  I think the reason may amaze some of you.

    When I went to college, we had to take 3 math or science classes.  One of the classes was Introduction to Math.  Most on campus called it “Bonehead Math.”  It was the most basic math available.  One of the chapters was on using a calculator and what the symbols mean.  This was as elemental as it got. 

     The only thing more ironic than the people who took this class was the man who taught the class.  He was a scraggly looking guy that was teaching his first class at Northern; the year before he taught at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion School.  To say that he was brilliant at math would be a grievous understatement.  Yet there was the rub.  He would explain everything as simply and concisely as he possibly could.  Yet it was completely over the heads of many of the students.  He simply could not relate to the people sitting in the desks.  There was no way he could connect with the students.  He did try; he tried as hard as a man could, but it just didn’t happen.  Most of the teaching came from student to student not teacher to student.

    This is part of the reason that God wants you.  He loves you deeply; that is why he chose to redeem you.  But then He gives to his Church, you and me, the task of continuing to bring lost people to Christ and to help carry the burdens.  Yet who does this the best?  It is Christians who have experienced the pain of life.  We have discussed this at a couple of Bible Studies that we have at church.  I do my best; I listen, I study, and I do my utmost diligence but unless a person experiences life; it is hard to really be completely compassionate. 

    For example, I have never had a spouse or a child die.  I have never experienced that loss.  I can offer God’s comfort and the comfort of the Church but the person who can best help that grieving person is someone who has felt that loss.  I don’t know the struggles of addiction, but I pray with and for those who do.  Yet that burden is shared best by someone who can look into that person’s eye and say, “I know what you are going through.”    This is why God wants you.  You have lived it; you know the burden it causes, and you know the comfort that God gave you.  This makes you the best candidate to bear one another’s burdens.  It is not the high and mighty but the lowly and the wounded who can best carry out Christ’s work of bearing with one another.

Dearest Father, you give us life and bring us out of the pit of sinful despair.  Use us, Father, to pull others out of the pit as well.  Give us the courage to reach out and the willingness to share your love with those in need of it most.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret