It is well...with my soul

At the end of the service a few weeks ago, we together sang a song called, It is Well.

We sang the line, “It is well with my soul” over and over again, and as I was singing, I was thinking that this is probably on one of the most difficult things we are called to do as followers of Jesus.

Sure, it is well with my soul if life is going well. If I am at the top of my game, yes!, it is well with my soul.  But what if life is not going well, what if I am not doing well… is it still well with my soul?

In his book Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God, Tim Challis shares his personal pain over the death of his son and frames it in sound theology.

I was moved by his Manifesto, the profession of his faith that as a father he will accept his son's death as God's will and that God's providence will and does give them the strength to live into the future.

It is so powerful, and so challenging I have adapted it as my own.

I have included Challis’ manifest here, however you will notice that I have taken out the personal bits about his son. Perhaps it can give you ideas or words, as it has me, that you can adopt as your own as we attempt to be faithful in even the most difficult of circumstances.  And may it be well with your soul.

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By faith I will accept ________ as God’s will, and by faith accept that God’s will is always good. By faith I will be at peace with Providence, and by faith at peace with its every decree.

By faith I will praise God in the taking as I did in the giving, and by faith receive from his hand this sorrow as I have so many joys. I will grieve but not grumble, mourn but not murmur, weep but not whine.

Though I will be scarred by______, I will not be defined by it. Though it will always be part of my story, it will never become my identity.

I will be forever thankful that God gave me ____and never resentful that I lost them.

My joy in having loved _____ will be greater than my grief in having lost them.

I will not waver in my faith, nor abandon my hope, nor revoke my love. I will not charge God with wrong.

I will receive this trial as a responsibility to steward, not a punishment to endure. I will look for God’s smile in it rather than his frown, listen for his words of blessing rather than his voice of rebuke.

This sorrow will not make me angry or bitter, nor cause me to act out in rebellion or indignation.

Rather, it will make me kinder and gentler, more patient and loving, more compassionate and sympathetic.

It will loose my heart from the things of earth and fix it on the things of heaven. The loss of ____will make me more like God’s Son, my sorrow like the Man of Sorrows.

I will continue to love God and trust him, continue to pursue God and enjoy him, continue to worship God and boast of his many mercies.

I will look with longing to the day of Christ’s return and with expectation to the day of resurrection. I will remain steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

I will forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, always pressing on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I will lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely and run with endurance the race that is set before me, looking always to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of my faith. I will remain faithful until I have fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith. I will die as I have lived—a follower of Jesus Christ. Then, by grace, I will go to be with Jesus, and go to be with ____.

This is my manifesto. 1

1. Adapted from Tim Challis.  Season’s of Sorrow: The Pain of loss and Comfort of God. Zondervan, September 2022.

Queen of more

During our vacation this August, Brian and I took a little trip to Boston.  The objective was to see the Blue Jays play the Boston Red Sox. What a thrill to be at Fenway Park!

We went to a double header and they won both games!!

Another highlight for me was seeing the World premiere of the musical The Queen of Versailles starring Kristen Chenoweth in the magnificent Emerson Colonial Theatre. The show was such a hit in Boston that it is now on its way to Broadway. For theatre buffs, this was a big deal! The show is based on the docu/movie of the same title.  Essentially theme of the show highlights how our culture wants more.  More money, more property, more clothes…just more, more, more.

Truthfully I’ve thought, ‘If I just had more influence, or more money, I could do more. I could be more generous. I would open a food bank. I would clear any deficit at the church. If only I had more.”

But Jesus reframes that desire for more when he says in Luke 16:10.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

For Jesus it is not how much you’ve got, it’s about how you use what you’ve got.

Rather than focusing on what I might do if I had more, Jesus invites us to consider how we are using what we already have.  Are we sharing our food with our hungry neighbour, are we listening to the voices of our children and showing patience to the co-worker that is driving us crazy, are we showing the people in our midst love and care?

It’s easy to think we could do great things if we just had more but if we are not faithfully using whatever resources God has given us then we are demonstrating that we wouldn’t be responsible with bigger things either.  With every kind word, every generous gift, every act of love we are partnering with God to restore creation.  These may seem small and insignificant but Jesus tells us that his kingdom is like a mustard seed. It is so small you can hardly see it but it becomes massive and blesses countless people.

So I don’t have to be the Queen of more to be faithful.  I will be faithful with the resources that God has given me and watch God do more!

So how might God be inviting you to join in building God’s kingdom with the resources you have?

Celebrate!

I LOVE birthdays! Not just my birthday, I love celebrating the birthday of my friends and loved ones. I love the hoopla with family, the balloons, the cake, the bright napkins... I love all of it. In fact, for those who know me, know that I have been on a campaign for years to institute “birthmonth” because a day just doesn’t seem enough to celebrate the people we love ;)

One would think that the older one gets the less likely they are to want to celebrate their many, many years on earth.  Not me. I realize I am getting older, but aren’t we all?  I know that I no longer bounce when I fall, or that my my laugh lines are deeper than they were 20 years ago, and that the reason I have bangs is really to hide the ever deepening lines on my forehead.  But, I am okay with it, why?

Because birthdays remind me of God’s faithfulness. As I take time to reflect on the year, I am reminded of how God has been there; how God has provided; and how God has comforted. And remembering that brings me closer to being in the presence of the One who has been with me all these years!

Have you read Psalm 71 lately?  The Psalmist talks about God’s presence through his life.

He says,

From birth I have relied on you;

    you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.

    I will ever praise you. (v.6)

Then he says,

Since my youth, God, you have taught me,

    and to this day I declare your marvellous deeds. (v. 17)

And I love this, maybe because I relate to this….

Even when I am old and grey,

The psalmist says,  

I [will] declare your power to the next generation,

    your mighty acts to all who are to come. (v.18)

The psalmist was blessed with God’s presence and faithfulness throughout his life and that is cause for praise! Notice he says he will “declare,” God has been so faithful, so powerful, so mighty through the years that he can’t keep it to himself.  He needs to tell the next generation!

So let’s celebrate birthdays!  Sure, birthdays signify the passage of time but they can also signify another year of God’s boundless love and faithfulness.

You are loved by an amazing God - embrace, wrestle but hang on…cuz' God ain’t done with us yet!

Thank you for helping me celebrate my BIG birthday last Sunday.  Our Amberlea family has caught on to the Birthmonth notion and I love them for it! Thank you!

God has given us much to celebrate!

Celebrate!

Celebrate often!

Celebrate one another!