The Pastors’ Pen – 31.3.22
Welcome to The Pastors’ Pen, an update for life at Southern Cross. What a perplexing time. Just as our city tried to get up from the horrible natural disaster on…
Welcome to The Pastors’ Pen, an update for life at Southern Cross.
What a perplexing time.
Just as our city tried to get up from the horrible natural disaster on the 28th of Feb 2022, we find our city battered down again. Speaking with Tim Dyer and his associate Luke Morgan on Tuesday this week, I stated “We don’t want the levee compromised again. It would simply break our city’s heart”. Yesterday we received a message from Tim and Luke. They heard, and saw, in the media that the levee had been breached again. They knew our hearts were broken.
What do you do?
How do you respond?
Personally, I still don’t know…
What does the Mayor do?
What do the military do?
What does our city do?
Fortunately, the forecast for the week ahead looks promising. What will the coming week bring? Again, it’s so hard to know. What does the week look like at SCPC? We don’t know. Over the last week we had started to prepare for our Term 2 series in Exodus. In chapter 16 of Exodus the people are in famine and expecting they will die in the desert. God miraculously intervenes saving them each day with manna, bread from heaven.
We don’t know what next week will bring.
We don’t know what the next month will bring.
We don’t know what the next three months will bring.
Let me quote from a Christian leader as they reflect on God’s provision in the Exodus:
“We take one day at a time. We trust God for today. And we trust that he will enable us to trust him tomorrow and in three months’ time. God doesn’t give grace today for tomorrow. Don’t worry how you would cope… don’t play scenarios. You are not given grace for ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’. You will be given grace for today. You will have the grace for the next day when it comes – and it will not come ‘til tomorrow. Look not to your version of the ‘jar of manna’ when you go to bed each night and tell yourself you have gained what you need – look instead to the providing God and tell him that you trust him to give you what you need.”
That is a powerful message I need to hear, DAILY! The last 48 hours have been horrendous. I am a doer – I love to get dirty and I love to get in the thick of things. But sometimes it is hard to know what to do. I can’t change all the things that cause me worry, anxiety and fear. But I can trust the one who promises to provide, even himself. Listen to Jesus’ call to find relief, incredibly, in himself:
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35
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