work

05
Sep
2022

Humility = Service (part 2)

For Labor Day, 2022

Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

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This post is a follow-up to last week’s post on Humility = Service.  The thoughts stemmed from readings for Pentecost 12:  Proverbs 25:6-7, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, and Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Acknowledging our ability to be of service to others

As we consider, humility and service, a second point needs to be made. If you read the previous post, maybe my descriptions missed some of you. Quite likely, a number of you are not pushy or bossy or intrusive or insistent. You let others go ahead of you. You’re patient while waiting your turn. You are completely content to be the quiet person in the back of the room. You aren’t looking to be on center stage.  That may be just fine … but it also may be unhelpful. Let’s consider what can happen when you are too humble, too self-effacing, too willing to keep quiet on the sidelines.

I’ve seen humility go too far and impede godly service to one another. Too often, people who have gifts to serve and gifts to lead are asked to use those gifts, and they say, “Oh, no, not me. I can’t do that.”  They sound like Moses when he hesitated, saying, “O my Lord, please send someone else” (Exodus 4:13).

I remember a meeting of a board of elders at a congregation. It was suggested that the elders do more than have meetings. The proposal was that every other month–instead of just meeting around the table at the church–they would start with a prayer, then go out to scheduled appointments to visit with church members. The elders around the table turned pale as ghosts when the suggestion was made. Doing the actual work of ministering to others frightened them.

Or there was a woman in a congregation, someone others looked up to. Others would approach her for advice. She was spiritually well-grounded, and others could see that.  When her pastor asked her to take on a more formal role, as a deaconess in the congregation, she professed all sorts of humility and said she wasn’t worthy of such a role. Maybe that was okay. Maybe she didn’t need any official title. If she continued doing the mentoring she was doing when others approached her, that would still be good. But she needn’t have shied away from stepping up to higher responsibilities, when asked to do so for the good of others.

When someone calls upon you to “come on up” to a higher position of responsibility, or to a task of leadership to which you are particularly suited, are you ready to answer that call? Or will you let an excess of humility get in your way?

If you are called to come up to a higher place and serve others around you in your life, don’t wave a white flag of humility and say you’re not worthy.  It’s quite true that none of us are worthy by our own virtue to serve as ambassadors for Christ. But Christ, in his mercy, has given each of us gifts and calls each of us into unique roles of service. “If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly” (Romans 12:8 NLT).

This principle applies not just in your church life, such as the church examples I gave. Being ready to step up and serve applies daily in your personal life. Each of you has connections, situations, opportunities that arise day by day. When an occasion arises which calls you into action, that’s not a time for you to hide in humility and say, “Oh, it’s none of my business,” or, “Someone with more knowledge or skill should be the one to help.”  The situation is in front of you now. The friend or neighbor or family member is needing you now. Don’t pull back, afraid. Be open to others’ needs. Be ready to help as best you can. Most of all, just be. Be present. Be there for people when they need you.  When someone is calling out with a need, recognize that God may be calling you to step into action. Often those calls are not verbally expressed, but you know the need is there. Without being a busybody, you can offer yourself as a friend, as an ally in Christ. You can offer resources and referrals to other sources of help too. Look for those real-life opportunities to be Christ to your neighbor. “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to [the position you are in] for just such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

Acting on behalf of others is a way of exercising proper humility. You don’t use humility as an excuse in such situations, backing away and ducking out.  You exercise humility by putting others’ needs ahead of your own, others’ comfort and care ahead of your own potential discomfort and fears. You use your time and your talents in the interests of others. Having humility and compassion means you’re not just looking out for yourselves.  Through your love and labor, you become humble and devoted servants to one another (cf. Galatians 5:13).

In your lives, what opportunities are presenting themselves where someone is saying, “Friend, come on up” to a higher place, to an added responsibility, to a role of helping or leading others? Keep your eyes and ears open for those opportunities. Keep your spiritual senses tuned in. Recognize that God is calling you to use your gifts in humble service to your neighbor. When you see someone hungry, you’ll be ready to give them food. When you see someone thirsty, you’ll give them something to drink. As Scripture urges (Hebrews 13:1-3), you will “let mutual love continue.” You will “show hospitality to strangers.” You will “remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them.” You will do whatever you can to assist those who are feeling tortured (experiencing pain or suffering in their lives), ”as though you yourselves were being tortured” along with them.  You will “continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God” by doing good for others and by sharing yourself and what you have with others, “for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:15-16).   You will welcome into your life “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind”–those who cannot repay you–knowing “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 7:13,14).  In doing even just the little things for those who seem the least significant or least influential in this world, you offer service to Christ, who says to you, “‘Truly I tell you, just as you” do these things for “the least of these who are members of my family,” you do it for me (cf. Matthew 25:35-40).  Amen.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

 

Posted by David Sellnow
15
Aug
2022

Timelessness

“With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

Life has been hectic for me lately. For more than two months, I haven’t paused long enough to post thoughts to this blog. Perhaps no one noticed, because whoever might be reading this might have been busy too!

Today’s task for me was to catch up on some spring cleaning. (Yes, I know, it’s late summer.)  I came across some thoughts I once wrote on the subject of this life’s time pressures. Rereading those thoughts did me some good. If you’ve been feeling time-pressured, maybe these thoughts will be good for you too.

Back when my kids were young, I recall a night we thought we had just enough time to gather the family for a quick meal. One child was finishing sports practice; another was on the way to a game; a third needed to be at play rehearsal; the youngest would tag along in one direction or another. We had a 45-minute window when all of us could be together for supper. But the pickup window at the burger joint was slow. Instead of sitting down at the table, we had to grab and run, in separate cars, gulping our food on the way here and there.

As I drove my daughter to her rehearsal, a song came on the radio–a song about heaven. It was a country song … and not a particularly good one. It made me think, though: How wonderful heaven will be! No chasing, no racing, no pressures, no deadlines. Instead, endless peace. We will rest from our labors (Revelation 14:13) with no more recurring cycle of day and night (Revelation 21:23). Time as we know it will cease, and “we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Eternity with God will be so tranquil that the floor of heaven is described as being “something like a sea of glass, like crystal” (Revelation 4:6).

Sometimes people picture the peacefulness of heaven as though it will be dull or tedious. Cartoons lampoon harp players sitting on clouds, looking as if they have nothing else to do. Don’t think of heavenly rest that way. We will be active. We will be lively. We will be engaged in constant service in God’s presence (Revelation 7:15). We will be singing the praises of Christ for his salvation (Revelation 5:12). We will see God’s face and will reign with him (Revelation 22:4). Life will be calm, but it won’t be tedious.

What we will be missing from heaven–(and we won’t miss such things!)–are the problems and pitfalls associated with our current time-bound existence. Temporal life has become defined by mortality and decay, by conflicts and complications. Sin has made our world that way (cf. Romans 8:19-23). Everlasting life will have none of the things that cut short our time here. “With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Yet there will be no feelings of boredom, nor any sense of time dragging. Never will we experience the anguish of an awful episode that seems like it will never end. “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Revelation 21:4). That old order of things will have passed away.

At the moment, in the here and now, I’m a month behind in sending a birthday card to one of my siblings. I’m scrambling to keep up with tasks at work, logging overtime hours because our agency is experiencing staff shortages (as are many human services agencies these days). In the non-momentary infinity of the hereafter, we’ll all have ample hours always. (What are hours there?)  We’ll have limitless capacity to associate with one another in the heavenly family and uninterrupted opportunity to be with our Father. I’m glad for all the activities of my family and associates on this earth, glad we find time to enjoy many good things in our world. Yet I long for the timelessness of heaven and the even stronger bond of faith and hope and love that will exist for us with one another there.

David Sellnow

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Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A version of this devotional writing was published in Forward in Christ (January 2005).

Posted by David Sellnow
20
Sep
2021

Finding Meaning in our Work

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands!
(Psalm 90:17)


Finding Meaning in our Work

It’s been two weeks since the Labor Day holiday. How have your labors been since then? After every weekend or holiday, do you feel like it’s back to the daily grind? Work can have a tendency to grind us down and wear us out.  That’s somewhat the way of this world ever since the world became an imperfect place. The Lord forewarned us that working for a living would be toilsome, full of thorns and thistles. It takes sweat and effort to put bread on the table and to keep a roof over our heads (cf. Genesis 3:17-19).  

At the same time, though, work remains a blessing, a way for us to serve God and others, one of the avenues through which we find meaning in our day-to-day existence.  

A friend full of the Spirit and wisdom loaned me a couple of books to read. They’re older books, but with timeless lessons in them: The Search for Meaning (1994) and The Search for Meaning in the Workplace (1996).  For all working people out there, I’d like to share some thoughts on finding meaning in our work, and will quote quite a bit from the two books mentioned. For references to the books, SFM indicates The Search for Meaning and MIW indicates The Search for Meaning in the Workplace.

It is an illusion of our society that “the accumulation of wealth and material possessions can provide meaning to life. The less meaning there is in one’s life, the easier it is to be seduced into the materialistic work hard, play hard, be happy syndrome” (SFM p.86-87).

Even everyday tasks can be meaningful if we treat them as such. “Why can’t washing the dishes or doing the laundry become acts of artistry? Why can’t we strive for purposefulness and efficiency in all of our actions, regardless of their seeming insignificant? All acts of daily life can be rendered meaningful when they are performed with care and attention” (SFM p.199). As the church reformer John Calvin said, “No task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God’s sight” (MIW p.42).  

The thought of work as a calling, a vocation, was a theme also in the teaching of Martin Luther, another key church reformer.  Our vocation in life does not so much refer to a specific job or position or career, but to our call to serve others by our lives and our labors. As Luther wrote, “I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me. … As our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become, as it were, a Christ to the other” (Martin Luther, Freedom of the Christian, Luther’s Works vol.31). Or, as W.E.B. Du Bois stated, “The return from your work must be the satisfaction that work brings you and the world’s need of that work” (MIW p.74). We find meaning in our work by knowing that the work we are doing is helping others, serving others, advancing the well-being of others.

Meaningful work on behalf of our neighbors in the community “provides us with energy, fills our hearts with joy, and makes us feel alive. In order to make work meaningful, it must be an integral part of life, not just that part of the day when we leave our ‘real’ life to make the money we need to support what we refer to as spare time, that is, time when we are ‘spared’ from work. Life, like time, is an integrated whole. It is not meant to be segmented into work time, spare time, and sleep time. There is no such thing as spare time, there is only life, and it is impossible to separate our work from our life” (MIW p.180-181).

As priest and author Matthew Fox has summarized: “Our work is meant to be a grace. It is a blessing and a gift, even a surprise and an act of unconditional love, toward the community—and not just the present community that may or may not compensate us for our work, but the community to come, the generations that follow our work” (MIW p.209).

As we get up and get busy with our tasks each day—whether paid work or as volunteers, whether in the community or in our homes—may we find much meaning in what we do. All our work is tied to our partnership with one another in community, a commitment to “to the care and nurturing of each other’s mind, body, heart, and soul” (SFM p.128).

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What gain have the workers from their toil? … There is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
(Ecclesiastes 3:9,12,13)


Authors of The Search for Meaning and The Search for Meaning in the Workplace: Thomas H. Naylor, William H. Willimon, Magdalena Naylor, and Rolf V. Osterberg. 

Scripture quotations, except where indicated otherwise, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
06
Sep
2020

Work is essential

by David Sellnow


When the COVID-19 pandemic began, state governors issued orders identifying essential workers whose labors were needed for community health and sustenance and safety. As pandemic conditions have persisted, we’ve come to see how work is essential for everyone. Those who’ve been forced into unemployment are painfully aware of how much their work mattered, especially as extended unemployment benefits ran out.

Even in Eden, work was provided for Adam and Eve. We may sometimes think of work as a necessary evil, but meaningful labor is actually an ongoing good that God intended for us in this world. Being on a perpetual vacation with nothing to do would not be paradise. Vacations provide needed respite from overwork. A weekly day of rest (sabbath) is a divinely designed time to withdraw from busyness and renew our spirits in communion with our Creator. But work itself is a vital part of our human experience. Anyone who has ever lost a job and been out of work knows what a blow to personal identity and security and hope it is.

Work is God’s way of providing for our needs in daily life, as well as the needs of our neighbors and communities. Studies have found that job loss and insecure employment have damaging effects on individuals’ emotional well-being and overall health. A 2009 study found that “unemployed workers died more than a year earlier than average” (Houston Chronicle, 2/1/2019).  As to community wellness, a study published in 2001 in The Journal of Law and Economics found that “a substantial portion of the decline in property crime rates during the 1990s [was] attributable to the decline in the unemployment rate.” When work is unstable, our own health and the stablility of whole communities is threatened. .

All work that has a beneficial purpose is godly work. A devoted church worker, Martin Luther, labored hard to teach this truth about work outside of church. In his era, clergy persons were held to be somehow holier than ordinary people simply by virtue of the religious positions they occupied. Luther reshaped the outlook on vocation or “calling,” assigning honor to all community members who were doing good work for their neighbors.  

In his address To the Christian Nobility in the German lands (1520), Martin Luther wrote: “A cobbler, a smith, a peasant—each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops. Further, everyone must benefit and serve every other by means of his own work or office so that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, just as all the members of the body serve one another.”  Luther also has been quoted saying, “Every occupation has its own honor before God. Ordinary work is a divine vocation or calling. In our daily work, no matter how important or mundane, we serve God by serving the neighbor and we also participate in God’s ongoing providence for the human race.”   Marc Kolden, writing in the Lutheran Journal of Ethics (2001), emphasized that Luther’s thought wasn’t so much about what formal occupation you might have. Any and every role in which you labor for others–even “the most mundane stations” and lowest tasks–”are places in which Christians ought to live out their faith” and help others by their efforts. In his writing On the Estate of Marriage (1522), for instance, Luther highlighted the noble duty of a parent changing diapers as an act of faith and love and service.

As COVID-19 began to ravage the United States, healthcare workers were hailed by members of their communities, from the banging of pots and pans each evening at 7:00pm in New York to residents going outside and howling at 8:00pm each night in Colorado. This was welcomed as recognition of essential efforts. I pray that through this present crisis, we learn to applaud work and workers in all sorts of needed roles, and also respect and remunerate workers appropriately for what they do to hold our communities together. Many of those considered “essential workers” under governors’ orders are in positions that are paid minimum wage or not much more. In my state, someone working full-time at minimum wage must spend roughly half their income to afford a one-bedroom apartment. They’d spend quite a bit more than half their income on rent in a metro area. According to government-defined standards, households that spend more than 30% of their income on rent are defined as “cost-burdened” and qualify for public assistance. Those spending more than 50% of their income on rent are “severely cost-burdened.” Something does seem amiss when persons doing work that we consider essential to community life have a hard time making ends meet as residents in the community.

So, as we observe Labor Day, let us pray:

  • with deep thanks for our own employment if we continue to have employment;
  • with passionate concern for all who are facing unemployment or reduced employment and income;
  • for generous gifts to churches and charities who work with persons in need; 
  • for strength and hope and help if we ourselves are financially burdened and at risk;
  • for recognition of all workers’ worth and the value of others’ work on our behalf;
  • for a willingness to share in supporting one another as neighbors in society;
  • for wise leadership in our nation and world to guide economies through difficult challenges;
  • for personal commitment to do all forms of labor and service as acts of faith in answer to our calling as Christ’s people.


“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms“ (1 Peter 4:10).

“Brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13).

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Posted by David Sellnow
18
Jan
2020

Held together by our work

Originally published on the Electric Gospel on September 24, 2019.

Held together by our work

by David Sellnow

Earlier this month, over the Labor Day weekend, I enjoyed some time away from work. In doing so, I was mindful of the work done by others that made my holiday possible. Mechanics had oiled and lubricated my vehicle. Road crews had built and maintained the highways that I traveled. Police patrolled and kept roadways safe. Convenience store clerks made the journey more convenient.  Hotel staff members provided a clean, comfortable place to spend the night. Cooks and servers put delicious meals on the table in front of me.

That brief travelogue represents just a small part of our economy – our interwoven fabric of persons working for and with one another cooperatively. We typically think of the term “economy” in purely monetary terms. The word, however, comes from ancient roots meaning “management of the household.”  Our shared economy is not merely money changing hands and profit being made. We live together in an arrangement, in a society, in a large “household” as a human family.  And in that interdependent arrangement, each worker is valuable and every job is important.

The Bible describes the church as a body of adjoined parts, all needing each other (1 Corinthians 12:12-17).  Something similar could be said of our relationships in human society as a whole. Every member of society has a role of service and importance on behalf of others. If the supposedly least or lowest jobs aren’t being performed, everybody would feel it and be hurt by it. Imagine your next road trip with no gas stations open for business. Or imagine your neighborhood with no garbage collection week after week.  The most basic of jobs are, in many ways, the most essential for keeping society functioning.

A money-minded economy tends to elevate and virtually worship those at the top of the money pile—whose wealth may stem from inheritance or investments more than from income from work. But it is work itself—laboring to meet the needs of others—that truly keeps the human household well-ordered as an “economy.”  Work is dignified and meaningful, a gift of God for us in our lives on earth. From the beginning, God gave us work to do as managers of the created world. And God describes work—all persons’ work—as noble and worthwhile. “There is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot” (Ecclesiastes 3:22 NRSV).

Say a prayer of thanks for all the work that others do which benefits you. And offer thanks, too, for any job that you have—whatever that job may be. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV). Every job is a blessing and an opportunity. And each person’s work is vital to the life of well-being of one another.  We are held together by the many forms of work that people do. We rely on one another and live together as a community.

Posted by David Sellnow
18
Jan
2020

A parent’s prayer for a graduate

Originally published on The Electric Gospel on May 29, 2018

A Parent’s Prayer for a Graduate

by David Sellnow

Thinking of you, my child, and the fact that you’ve finished college, I have much in mind that I lay before the Lord in prayer.  I hope you won’t mind that these thoughts ramble in no particular order as I write them for you to read and heaven to hear.  I know the Spirit above doesn’t mind, because “the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

I pray you will hang onto Jesus, to anchor your soul in the firmness of his life and truth, and to lift you up in hope each day. When I pray that you hang onto Jesus, I’m not thinking so much of the formalness of this or that church—though church and formalness can be good spiritual disciplines.  My primary prayer is that your heart remains connected to Jesus like a branch growing from a vine.  Jesus pictured it that way:  “As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches” (John 15:4,5).

I pray you will hang onto memories—not only of college years but also of childhood.  Relish and treasure the good things you’ve experienced, the laughs, the joys, the interesting happenings. Remember times of blessing with family and friends.  But also remember the struggles, the challenges, the mistakes.  Don’t dwell on them in regret, but learn and grow from them as you take your past and present self into the future.

In that vein, I pray you will see success as an inner, spiritual quality more than as a financial quantity or as a résumé of accomplishments.  You may never win a Nobel Prize or a Tony Award or any noteworthy prizes or awards.  But being an everyday person in an everyday life is okay also.  And you may not make millions or even tens of thousands, but if you have enough to survive, and you maintain integrity in your heart, that is enough.   A person’s life “doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses” (Luke 12:15).   Do your best to succeed where you are, in whatever you are doing, remembering that the truest reward is richness of the soul, being filled with a love and eagerness for those around you.I pray that the path you have chosen for your career will be a blessing to you, and that you will always find satisfying work in your field.  But if it happens anywhere along the line that you have to accept a position other than your ideal, I pray that you’ll be able to make the best of that too.  The great apostle Paul sometimes needed to support himself by making tents. Sometimes you do what is needed rather than what is desired.  Through it all, preserve your character and resolve. “Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice” (Proverbs 16:8).

I pray you will network well, connecting with people.  That isn’t always easy, because people and relationships can be challenging.  An existential philosopher, in a famous line from a play, said: “Hell is other people.”  It’s easy to feel the way he felt.  But at the same time, we need other people. We need networks—and not just the social media kind that exist online.  No person is an island.  And even if some were islands, islands need connections to other places in order to meet their needs and access opportunities.  I pray that you’ll get along with others in your career and community in beneficial ways.  “If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18).

I also pray that as far as you yourself are concerned, you will be comfortable being who you are, where you are, and how you are in life.  Don’t let yourself worry whether you fit in with others or line up with expectations others may have.  Life doesn’t need to be a game of keeping up with the Joneses or the Kardashians or whomever else.  Allow yourself plenty of leeway for finding your own way. Accept that there will be changes in plans, redirections and do-overs. Remember that you are unique, that you are God’s workmanship, and he has prepared in advance many good things for you to do (cf. Ephesians 2:10).  In whatever direction you go, go with confidence in yourself and in the Father above, who cares for you.

I pray you will do better in life than us, your parents.  I don’t mean that necessarily in financial or career terms, though that would be nice too.  Mostly I mean for you to have happiness, stability, and contentedness to a greater degree than we have evidenced.  Though we’ve tried to devote ourselves to you in love and leadership, parents are never perfect examples.  For the best sort of leadership, always look toward the Lord himself.  “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:1,2).

I pray you will be honest with yourself and with others. I know, I know, I haven’t always been that way myself.  I’ve put up false fronts in public and said other things in private. But in the end, that only leads to internal and external conflict.  Better to be the way that Jesus described Nathanael, when choosing him as a disciple:  “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit” (John 1:47).

I pray you will remain a positive force for good in the world, even when this world seems to have little that is good and positive in it.  When you look around and see perpetual crises and conflicts, refugees forced to flee their homes and lands, children growing up in poverty and hunger, and all the other woes of this world, it’s easy to give up on making the world a better place.  But remember that the same Bible that prophesied there will always be “wars and rumors of war” (Matthew 24:6), and that “you always have the poor with you” (Matthew 26:11), also said to us: “As we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men” (Galatians 6:10), and urged us to offer “petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks” for everyone around us (1 Timothy 2:1).   Keep striving to do what you can in your own little corner of the world to make an impact there, even when it’s hard to see much change occurring in the wider world beyond you.  Don’t give up on being someone who loves your neighbor, even when the wider neighborhood of the world seems not to notice or care.

I pray you won’t be surprised or devastated when trouble comes along, when plans get derailed, when obstacles block your path. In this world we will have trouble, Jesus said (cf. John 16:33).  So if you do encounter painful difficulties, don’t despair.  Not all of life will be rosy, and even when there are roses, they always come with thorns attached.  So hang onto hope though thick and thin.  Endure hardship when it happens, be disciplined by it, grow stronger from it.  “All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

I pray you will savor and be strengthened by the simple pleasures you can find in life—a refreshing beverage, a relaxing evening at home, a walk in the park.  I hope too that your life may have its fill of exciting moments and bigger adventures.  But when you can’t get away for exotic vacations or extensive travels, I pray you’ll be able also just to appreciate the life that you have, wherever it may be. Just say, “Feed me with the food that is needful for me” (Proverbs 30:8) – that is enough.

Finally, I pray you will remember where home is.  You are all grown up and away from us now. But we remain your parents always, and maintain concern for you constantly.  You still may need us for advice, for reassurance of love, or just for a hug or a chat. Don’t stay away from home or off the phone from us for too long at a time. And even if you are at a point where you don’t need much from us, we very much need you and yearn to see you and hear from you.  So don’t forget dear old mom and dad.  As the Bible urges, “Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:22).  You are our most precious treasure on this earth, and we are always praying for you!

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Just released on Kindle Direct Publishing:  Faith Lives in Our Actions: God’s Message in James Chapter 2.  Get the eBook for your Kindle, or you can download the free Kindle app to read on any device.

Posted by David Sellnow