What's really important

* Apologies to all this post was for March 15th, but due to a late board meeting last night I didn't get to publishing the post until this morning. It was written though yesterday -I have witnesses!!

I'm still in a little bit of shock.

Today just as I came back to the office from lunch I received word that one of our dearly loved sisters in Christ, Brenda Dyck had passed away. Brenda was only 49 years old and had courageously battled cancer for quite some time. Sometimes she was victorious - lately she was losing the war. Several times over the six and a half years I've been in this community I have had the honour of praying for and with Brenda and her husband Randy for God's Divine Healing. It seems that God, in his abundant mercy, saw fit to fulfill his promise of healing in the resurrection rather than in this age.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world

John 16:33b

As I reflect on the things I saw in Guatemala, the things we're all seeing on the news that are going on in Japan, and the personal tragedies and struggles that we see in people's lives here in Canada - it's easy for us to resonate with Jesus words that we will have troubles. It seems sometimes that suffering, pain and loss are the only things guaranteed in life (beyond death and taxes of course) and we wonder if any of what we do here really matters anyways? It's hard to look at the things you do for a living, the relationships you pour time and energy into, the hobbies that you pursue and even the good works that you try and live out as you follow Christ as being anything more than a drop in the ocean in light of the overwhelming tide of wrongness we see around us. Sin, sickness, injustice, oppression, poverty, famine, flood, earthquake, tsunami and the like all seem like insurmountable adversaries to us seeing the Kingdom of God that was proclaimed as already being here in the sermon on the mount. What can I do that matters?

Surely my little Lentin project of selling off my toys does nothing for the millions suffering in Japan right now, surely my commitment to blog does nothing to feed the families I met in Guatemala who are living far below the poverty line and are trapped in the darkness of pagan worship that strips them not only of their relationship with the Saviour - but also forces them into a corrupt system that exploits them financially to keep them in the good graces of the various 'gods' that they worship. And certainly nothing that I do here is going to somehow alleviate the pain and loss felt by the family and friends of our dear departed sister. So why does any of this matter. Why don't we just give up and take the advice of Job's wife? Why don't we just curse God and die.

The answer I think is in the second half of that statement form John 16:11; "Take heart! I have overcome the world." God does not want us to live like the Ostrich burying our heads in the sand pretending that life is not hard, or painful or challenging at times but he does want us to acknowledge that God is bigger than our challenges, God is more powerful than our pain, and that He - despite how bleak the circumstances may seem - is still on the throne. John 1:4-5 says:

In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Take heart means to not give up on this life, or this world, or our present circumstances. Take heart means not to throw in the towel and concede defeat to a corrupted creation and the laws of entropy and decay. Take heart means that the little things we do - although they seem small and insignificant compared to our troubles, when empowered by God's all-sufficient Spirit matter. The warm greeting you extend to someone at the beginning of the Church service has eternal implications - regardless whether or not there has been an earthquake somewhere, the fact that I am doing my best to become less materialistic by selling off my Transformers - although by some measure a token gesture of obedience - still matters because through it I am learning how to discern between what my flesh tells me is important and what's really important. And the love and compassion you extend to a grieving family in their time of loss still matters - even when all you have to offer them is your own tears of compassion and empathy. These things matter because the world in all it's troubles and hardships cannot overcome the one who has come to redeem them. They are not bigger than the one who is making all things new and when we respond with Christ-like love and service we are working alongside the one who is overcoming the world by his power made manifest in is people. That is why this blog is still important - even on a day like this.

So here is today's Transformer. 2007 Movie Voyager Optimus Prime. He's the smaller of the two Optimus prime figures from the 2007 movie line. I don't have much else to say about him.

Until tomorrow,

Chris