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This is Holy Week. All over the world, believers will gather together to contemplate the events that unfolded many centuries ago, in Jerusalem. In our Sunday services, we can get so caught up in the drama of dancing and singing “Hosanna” while waving our palm branches as we try to recreate the atmosphere that unfolded that day….
Loneliness. If you have ever experienced it, you know. Jesus felt it too on that night in Gethsemane. Throughout his life he had enjoyed the crowds in the temple, and he had experienced the closeness of those who followed him day and night listening to his teachings and experiencing his miraculous power. For three years he had savored the constant friendship of the twelve disciples, his closest chosen companions. Yet on the night that he needed them the most, in those final few hours of his life, they fell asleep. They abandoned him. They failed him in his hour of need.
…When was the last time someone really encouraged you? How did it make you feel? How did you view yourself afterwards? If you haven’t been encouraged in a while, how greatly do you long for it? If the daily news headlines are anything to go by, our whole world needs encouragement right now.
The feeding of the 5,000 is a story we know well. We are inspired by this miracle when we are caught in worries of scarcity. This miracle reminds us that Jesus will provide. Yet, while we focus on his impactful teaching and miraculous feeding of the crowd, it is easy to gloss over the thing that makes it possible: rest.
In reading this story, what do you notice?
As a young girl growing up, I often heard the adults in my life say the phrase, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. At the time, I did not understand the full meaning of that phrase, but as I got older it made a whole lot more sense. I noticed how destructive idle time can be. The devil likes to slip into the idle and empty spaces of our lives. He loves to wreak havoc when he finds an opening, however tiny it might be.
Take a moment and think about the most important thing you need to accomplish by the end of your day today. Pause. I’ll wait…. Got it?
Now would you believe me if I told you that, that is not the most important thing?
The beginning of a new year is often filled with hope, promise and potential. We wish each other a joyous “Happy New Year!” because we really desire a happy future; a future different from all the complications and struggles of the past year. In reality, life does not turn on a dime. Life is life, and it is filled with moments of darkness and light.
I was listening to a documentary regarding the terrible tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004. One of the people that experienced the tsunami firsthand, described how the people on the beach looked out across the water to a white line in the horizon with lazy curiosity. The white line was the signal that an ominous danger was approaching, but those present had no idea.
In her book, titled “The One and Only” Beth Moore, an American evangelist and author tells the story of her attempt to minister to people living in a leper colony. Something inside of her drove her to want to serve lepers, who had been ostracized from the community. She wanted to serve this group of people who had no family, no friends, no future and no hope.
This is Thanksgiving week. It is a time to pause and give thanks for all that God has done for us. There are two ways to do this, we can approach Thanksgiving Day as a matter of routine, tick the box at the end of the day, and wait to do it all over again in 2024, or we can approach Thanksgiving Day more consciously than ever before. We truly are blessed!