Not-so-Subtle Reminders

Why does it always feel like this missionary has more to learn at church than everyone else?

When I went to church yesterday (finally back at West Shore), I was feeling a little bitter and hurt. Our extended family is going through a really tough time right now...things are not good. Our situation is uncertain, even scary, and the future is unclear as things seem to continue to worsen.

Then as worship started, the songs were all about God's faithfulness. I must admit, at that moment, I was in no mood to sing about God's faithfulness. I was struggling, and my thoughts were more like "God, I'm just having a tough time singing about your faithfulness right now."

And then I looked up into the choir, singing beautifully before God and the congregation...really into it. And I started realizing something. There was a guy who had lost his job...and God had provided. There was someone who had been through a devastating divorce. There was Jan, the daughter of someone in our SIM family, in her wheelchair and wearing a surgical mask, struggling daily with cancer. And I looked around me in the auditorium. There aren't many of us here who have had it easy, are there? Sometimes it seems our enemy saves his toughest attacks for the believers, doesn't he?

I was convicted. If they could sing about God's faithfulness, well dang-nabbit, so could I. Feel it or not, I would sing along with them, and I would wait longer to see His faithfulness, knowing we might have to wait a while.

Thanks for singing with me, friends.