Dear Friends in Christ,

A couple of months back, a friend of the church spoke to me about having endurance to get through the difficult time in our lives. The Worship committee agreed and so I began to research the topic and then something happened to two good friends of mine.

They were in a car accident in which his wife lost her life. The husband is a minister and has seen many terrible things in his lifetime and have helped many through the grief process. Whenever he would experience or hear of any tragedy, he would say that it caused him to fall to his knees. Whether the event was a personal or professional loss, 9/11, hurricanes, etc., he relied on the tools of faith to see him through those times.

This loss though made me question how prepared we really are, because when tragedy comes, it can knock us for a loop. And more importantly, how do we recover? As the scripture above reminds us, there will always be a thief working to seek and destroy our lives. However, it is not the desire of God to abandon us, but to equip us with the tools to endure during times of trouble. This does not mean that we will not grieve during times of loss. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying wrote about the five stages we go through: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. What people learn is that it takes effort to get to that final stage and find a way to continue living instead of dying. Without the tools of faith, people can get stuck in the first four stages.

In the book How to Quiet a Hurricane, by Justin Kendrick, Lead Pastor, Vox Church, he makes the case for not just existing through life, but it is possible to living fully, being happy and whole, living a life of purpose by overcoming our fears and finding fulfillment. He writes, “The title {of the book} sums up so many of our highest ambitions and suggests that life does not need to be lived from a place of weakness or frailty. We can overcome. We can live life strong.”

To live through difficult times, it might help to strengthen our convictions, to lean into the promises found in the Bible and to embrace the tools of the faith that leads to Christian endurance.

There is a song I heard by Chris Tomlin called “I Will Rise” that I shared with my friend hoping that it would assure him that the Lord will see him through the pain and sorrow he is currently experiencing. It is a good message for those we know who are stuck and see no way out.

Even as summer begins, and vacations are planned, you will join me in learning how we can live our lives each day from a place of strength and confidence in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To God be the glory!

I thank God for you,

Pastor Kathy Nealand