Dear Friends,
When she was four years old, Ann Voskamp witnessed an horrific event that marked her life. She saw her sister be crushed and killed in farm accident.
“It was a horrifying experience,” she told me, “where you realize the world isn’t a safe place for me, as a child.”
The trauma of that event stayed with Ann as she grew.
“I was diagnosed with ulcers by the time I was seven. I started cutting in my teenage years... By the time I was 17, 18, 19—I was diagnosed an anxiety disorder.
All of which led her to ask herself this question:
“How do I give thanks in the midst of hard places?”
On this night before Thanksgiving, a day we have chosen to set aside as a nation to give thanks to God for his blessings and his bounty, many of us are facing the holiday more in touch with our pain and our problems than with joy and gratitude.
Pain is louder than pleasure. CS Lewis famously said “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
So how do we approach a Thanksgiving holiday when the hardships of life are drowning out the blessings we so easily take for granted?
We look up. Like the Psalmist, we lift our eyes to the hills and remind ourselves of where our help comes from. “Our help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth” (Psalm 121).
“If eyes are on God ,” Ann Voskamp asks, “ how can a heart not fill with thanks?
“Gratitude is an overflow of keeping eyes on Him. When your eyes keep seeing gifts of grace, you’re given the courage to keep going.”
A few weeks ago, we revisited the prayer prayed by the King of Judea, King Jehoshaphat, as he faced an advancing army from the east – warriors intent on capturing Jerusalem and enslaving the Jewish people. Jehoshaphat’s prayer was a declaration of the nation’s dependence of God for deliverance and protection. “We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us,” he prayed. “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
When Jahaziel the priest assured the King that God would in fact deliver His people, the Bible says that the mighty men of Judea went out to fight against their enemies singing praises to the Lord and declaring with one voice “Give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever.”
In the midst of any spiritual battle, as we face our own pain and fears, the right posture for us is to move forward with our eyes firmly fixed on God, our lips filled with praise and worship for Him, and our heart overflowing with thanksgiving for His steadfast love for us.
“Do we know,” Ann Voskamp asks, “how much our eyes, our attention, is fixed on Him — by how much gratefulness is in our hearts? When you pay attention to even just one thing to give thanks for, you put one step in front of the other, to walk into more joy.”
All of this doesn’t mean you ignore your pain or pretend your trails and suffering aren’t real. It doesn’t mean you put an artificial smile on your face and try to convince the omniscient God that “everything’s fine. Really. Never better.”
God invites us to bring our sorrow, our pain and our suffering to Him. To lament.
But he also reminds us that sorrow lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). He is the one who turns mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11-12).
Carlos Santiago began our service this past Sunday talking about how, for people who have experienced loss or who have been through a season of grief, a Thanksgiving holiday can bring waves of fresh sorrow.
If that’s you this week, I hope you’ll take some time to lift your eyes. To remember where your help comes from. To sing and worship. And to choose to offer thanks to God that there was hot water in the shower today. And electricity to light your home. And a thousand other blessings that we easily take for granted that many in our world go without every day.
And especially give thanks to the Lord for this. His steadfast love endures forever.
We’re down to about ten ornaments on our Brinkley Heights neighborhood Christmas tree at church. This Sunday is your last chance to select a name and support this effort.
Remember, we’re asking everyone who selects a name to:
- Pray for the child or children whose names you select during and after the Christmas season
- Take a Christmas card that we’ll provide for you and write a short note to the child wishing him or her a Merry Christmas and letting them know you are praying for them
- Write a check for $40 to cover the cost of the gifts we’ll be giving each child, which will include a copy of The Action Bible (a graphic novel edition of the Bible) along with something fun for each child
Your completed Christmas cards will need to be turned in no later than December 8.
Thanks for praying for and loving these kids!
The First Friday game night for our Roots students is next Friday night.
And later in December, there’s a Roots Christmas party happening as well!
And December is Tea Time! The annual Women’s Christmas Tea is December 7.
We need to know you’re planning to attend. Click here (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=6fc919b26f&e=fbb0a4052b)to add your name to the list of attendees.
A week later, on December 14, it’s the annual Family Christmas Party!
Sign your family up for the fun! Click here (https://redeemerlr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=df57aea0670b59c32464d5bab&id=8ef9f3f2b1&e=fbb0a4052b) to let us know you’re coming.
If you’re under 30-(ish), married or single, you’re invited to spend the first Saturday night of each month with the growing NxtGen group meeting together for fellowship and fun. Here’s the info.
Guys: The December Redeemer Men’s Institute meets on Thursday, December 5 at 7:00. The topic next month is how God uses spiritual disciplines as a means of sanctifying grace in our lives. And where’s the line between formalism, legalism and a healthy pattern of practicing the disciplines? Should be a lively conversation.
Whether you’ve attended any of these events this fall or not, every man is welcome (that includes young men who are interested).
As you’re making plans for Christmas Eve, keep in mind our annual Christmas Candlelight and Carols Service at 5:00 pm. It’s the perfect way to tune your heart for the celebration of the birth of Jesus the next day.
Here is the catechism question and answer we’ll be reciting this Sunday from the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. What is the second petition?
A. “Thy kingdom come.” That is, so rule us by Your word and Spirit, that we submit ourselves unto You always more and more; preserve and increase Your Church; destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against You, and all wicked devices formed against Your holy word, until the full coming of Your kingdom, wherein You shall be all in all.
In an agrarian culture, the annual harvest is a pivotal seasonal event. Throughout the Bible, that familiar occurrence is used as a metaphor for the end of the age, when God will come to harvest souls. Revelation 14 details two of these metaphorical harvest events, and we’ll look this Sunday at what they show us about God’s plan of redemption.
See you in church.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
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