Dear Family in Faith,

This is the day the Lord has made. 

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

This is the sentiment of many faith-filled people.  Each new day is God’s gift of re-creation and opportunities abound to see and experience God’s goodness and love.  Or, as the Apostle Paul writes to the Phillippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”  In the next verse over, Paul says, “do not worry about anything.” 

Yet, we also live in a world of tragic consequences and outcomes. 

I shared with our Session that one of the experiences I’m having in the continuing education course I’m involved in online is that eight of us in a small group took about three minutes and were able to name more than a dozen pieces of trauma affecting our church-lives these days—and none of them were related to COVID. 

There’s lots of “stuff” that affects us in different ways at different levels.  With the storms this week there were tornadoes near Round Rock, Texas and in New Orleans. Several of our churches in Texas sustained damage to their buildings, including one roof being lifted up and and set back, meaning it’s now unstable; one church family lost their home but each person and their pets were uninjured; and there was home and neighborhood damage in New Orleans where some of our churches there are.  Aside from the weather, there was another shooting incident at a community event in Dumas, Arkansas with at least 27 victims at last count.  You cannot turn on the television or open the newspaper or look online or at your phone—without being reminded there’s a war in Ukraine; and the toll of broken buildings and cities being reduced to rubble affects all of us. 

My mother’s sage advice anytime things were difficult was and is, “this too shall pass.”  I know that.  I believe that.  It’s just that I’d rather skip over the having to live through it part, that none of us like.  I want to get to the passed part! 

That’s the view of the Psalmist, who writes, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it”      (Psalm 118:24), writing out of real, lived-in experience of having to call on God out of suffering great distress.  “I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,” says the Psalmist, and gives God credit for bringing salvation.  The Psalmist’s declaration of this being the Lord’s day …for our rejoicing and gladness, comes from the experience of having lived through trauma.  And by the end of the psalm, rejoicing and gladness has turned again to a refrain of gratitude. 

Psalm 118 begins with “give thanks,” and a breath prayer, repeating: “[God’s] steadfast love endures forever” as a refrain three times.  But then it’s more clear.  Distress.  Hardship.  Difficulty.  And the outcome justifies this confidence that God is steadfast and delivers and saves.  “This, too, shall pass.” 

But sometimes, it’s hard to breathe in, “All will be well,” and not turn around and exhale, “are you sure …all will be well, God?”  The Psalmist offers a reminder that God says, “it shall be well …keep breathing.”  Eventually, the storm is over, and we open the door and go outside and we look to see what happened and we even find ways of helping those who suffered damage, or who had to endure the elements without protection.  Yes, we sometimes get to help make things well for others. 

But part of that conversation in my class about all the traumas we’re faced with, individually and collectively, was meant to help us become more aware and being mindful that resilient people and resilient communities are grounded in gratitude.  It’s not just knowing that when times are hard, God helps us; but also living into that experience of knowing what it is that we have to be grateful for.  That our gratitude gives us concrete evidence—like the Psalmist does—for God’s goodness and joy.  And that investing ourselves in the work of gratitude and thanksgiving is a key ingriedient not only to surviving, but overcoming; not just making it through to the other side, but thriving.  And when we invest ourselves in thanksgiving, we are also led to the places and people where what we might have to offer can be used. 

The Psalmist is right.  God is saving us.  This is the day God has made.  It’s not always joy and celebration—but also being aware of what we can be grateful for and how our lives are written into the fabric of the story God is making when worldly chaos is transformed.  What are your three best examples of the “steadfast love of the Lord enduring in your life?  We need each other.  We need Church.  Come share your stories of salvation. 

See you in Church!