Hello Everyone!
It’s hard to believe that our last public worship services were held back on March 22nd – it seems so much longer ago than that to me! Easter has come and gone, the warmth of the sun has gone and winter is just a month away. How quickly, yet how slowly, time has passed …
and I am badly missing you all.
Many years ago (back in 1994) I was blessed to be with a group of other ministers touring around the United States looking at different churches and how they operated. It was an interesting two weeks. One of the churches we visited was the Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles and, while there, we had an afternoon meeting with Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller, the senior pastor. Dr. Schuller was a television evangelist, motivational speaker and the author of dozens of books and articles. He was famous for his one-liner motivational quotes that always inspired and encouraged. To be sure, this particular afternoon, there was no shortage of motivational one-liners!
During his informal discussion with us that afternoon Dr. Schuller shared a lot of things, along with this one-liner: “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” He’d written a book about it a few years earlier and gave us all a signed copy – it was a bestseller and is still selling today. In that book – essentially a motivational piece for the secular market – Dr. Schuller argues that if you can name your problem, you can name your possibility! He shows you how to build a positive self-image, no matter what your problem. “Whether it's unemployment, poor health, loneliness, fear, or anything else that blocks your success, you can turn your negative into a positive. No matter how tough times get, you have the potential to achieve the best of life”. The book is no slick commercial self-help offering – it is built on hope and faith.
As he spoke to us ministers he became very vulnerable as he shared some of his own painful and toughest life experiences … and how he was able to endure and outlast these because of his faith in God and that indestructible hope that is embedded in it. Because of faith and hope he learned how to “tough out” tough circumstances and overcome – and to flourish again. He learned by experience as he walked closely with God, that faith and hope outlast the most painful, the most testing and the most difficult seasons of life … and that there always comes times of refreshing, peace, joy and prosperity of soul again. It made him “tough”, strong and resilient. Indeed, he realised what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote …
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love …” - 1 Corinthians 13:13
The toughest times cannot overcome these. The COVID-19 crisis can be a problem or a possibility! Despite the difficulties, so many of you can see the big new possibilities God is giving us to be his essential ambassadors on the earth! That makes us tougher than the tough times that never last … and we are becoming a tougher, stronger people of God.
Praise Him!