From the Pastor

May 2008

There was a small accident in my office recently. One of the candle stands that we sometimes use for festival worship services—glass covers on tall, heavy metals stands—got broken. The stand was bumped, and the glass cover went tumbling off and shattered against my bookshelf.

My first thought was, "Well, we will not be using those anymore." My next thought, as I looked at the stand that is now pretty useless, was, "What am I going to do with that?" It is not recyclable. It cannot go in the garbage. Unless I can find a replacement for the glass piece, it must go. I will figure it out, I guess, but for now, every time I look at the stand, I think: "What am I going to do with that?"

Some things—some truly significant things—are just hard to get rid of and hard to deal with, aren’t they? Things such as grief, anger, sickness, despair … all of these things can lead us to ask, "What am I going to do with that?" These things can become a burden that weighs us down. They can become consuming to the point that they are all that we can see. What will we do with such things? Often, all we want to do is make them go away.

Unfortunately, some things just cannot be made to go away quickly. Grief and illness may linger. Anger may gnaw at us. Despair may threaten to overwhelm us. Even trying to discern the path for our lives can feel like a heavy task.

Perhaps the better question to ask is "How might this burden be eased? What can make this somewhat easier to bear?" I think that question is best addressed with a "who" answer rather than a "how" or "why."

Jesus promises that is we cast our burdens on him, they will be eased. Simply offering our concerns and worries to him in our prayers can be both a blessing and a release, as we give voice to what we so desperately want him to know is on our minds and in our hearts and how much it affects us. We know God already knows what is in our hearts. But when we pray honestly and openly, we strengthen our relationship with him, and in so doing, we also strengthen our trust and our belief that somehow, some way, all will be well, even if things are not exactly the way we had envisioned them.

Further, Jesus invites us into community in his name, so that when we need support, when we need care, or when we need our burdens eased, we will have others to whom we can turn to in trust. We never have to bear these things alone.

The next time we feel the need to ask "What am I going to do with that?" (whatever "that" might be), perhaps the first thing that will come to mind is "I know what I will do. I will offer it to God in prayer ... and somehow, some way, all will be well." God in Christ will make his presence known to us, through our faith and through our fellowship with others in his name—and our burdens will be eased, even as our joy in him is increased.

In Christ,
Pastor Brenda