Perspective

Waking up with a bit more anxiety than normal is helpful for my desire to exercise. When my insides are wound up the best medicine for me is to get out and work through it.  Since I am not supposed to be at the church I decided that today was the day to hop on my mountain bike and get moving.  I've ridden this same 8 miles many times because I can just go from home. It's about mile 5 that this hill shows up.  This hill kills me every-single-time. From this picture it doesn't look like all that much, but it's a long hill, starts out climbing slowly and then right at the top, when your legs are screaming, is a steeper climb. The trade-off is that once you're over it, the rest of the way is pretty easy.  

Romans 12:12 says, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  If you've known me very long, you probably know that this comes at the end of one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  It's an easy one to remember, which might be helpful these days.  It came to mind today as I sat at the bottom of this hill trying to convince myself to just dig in and pedal.  What does it mean to be joyful in hope?  Patient in affliction?  Faithful in prayer?  

Living in what sort of feels like the twilight zone has given me a new perspective on what it means to live with hope - and how when we realize that there's always hope we can truly find joy.  I cannot imagine living right now without faith, without the foundation that no matter what comes....joy comes in the morning.  What is giving you joy today?

How about patience, something that matters most when we are thrown into new and unexpected circumstances.  In Scripture, James tells us that affliction is what grows us and matures us, but that always sounds like something at which we might roll our eyes. It is hard to have patience when we are uncomfortable, and yet it is in times like this when God often moves in mighty ways.  How's your patience these days?

Faithful in prayer is the easy one for me, because I have learned that in every moment is the presence of God.  So often we think that being prayerful means sitting silently with some sort of well-planned out thoughts, when in reality it's just sharing yourself with the One who created you and knit you together.  Are you sharing your life with God, the highs and lows and in-betweens?

I have a feeling that we are all climbing some sort of hill, sometimes they're small and other times they feel never-ending.  In the midst of this physical separation from one another it can feel like we are climbing slowly....but once we reach the top the view will be different and we'll realize how far we've come.  Let's run this race with joyful hope, patience and faithfulness.

Sending you all the love,
Pastor Devon