Encouragement

Imagine yourself on a mission to Rome with St. Paul. You’re one of 276 souls on board the Alexandrian ship a centurion found to transport Paul and you to Rome. Many are suffering from sea sickness and are scared. The waves of opposition to Paul and the journey are immense.  You have heard Paul is a zealot. You’re not sure how or why Paul was involved in the death of Steven. Was it temper? Or did Paul truly believe the stoning of Steven was God’s plan? You know that soon after the stoning of Steven, Paul changed.  Yet you’re very concerned because before Paul met the proconsul attendant Sergius Paulus, Paul was known as Saul (Acts 13:9). So, people on board are saying that Paul is a turncoat.

As you think about this, you start to worry and wonder if Paul is capable of leading a mission to Rome? You don’t like the fact that Paul has become a turncoat, someone whose sympathies lie with Rome. The Roman proconsul is the enemy, the legitimate ruler in charge of maintaining peace in the Roman occupied and controlled world encompassing most of the mediterranean. On top of this, things are not going as quickly and as smoothly as you imagined they would. You and the others thought you’d be free, full citizens by now, free to rent a room anywhere you traveled without a signed permission slip from your husband, boss or master.

Likewise today, many Christians are discouraged. Little has changed in the world. Sure women in western nations are free to travel without their husband’s or father’s permission. But, a father or a mother cannot travel across a border with their children without the written approval of their spouse. This security measure is for the protection of the child and most often there is no issue. However, when couples disagree and one decides to leave the other and take the children and flee the country, an issue of custody arrises and both make appeals to win custody, hoping to discredit the other parent.

Clearly, borders and citizenship are still major issues today that Democrats and Republicans like a divorced couple are divided upon. The Democrats and Liberal sympathizers around the world oppose the proposed US travel ban and view it as an unnecessary barrier for innocent citizens of Islamic nations hostile to the US. They claim that many of these travellers may be legitimate refugees at risk in Islamic nations because of their sexual orientation, behaviour, faith and political views.  Republicans and Conservatives argue that they need to be sure that these people travelling from hostile Islamic nations pose no threat to the American constitution, the economy and the well being of American citizens who are feeling queasy by all the political unrest in the world before allowing them entry into the country.

Imagining myself  on that ship sailing to Rome, in today’s political storm, I woke up Monday morning feeling disappointed. Another Valentine’s day and my Birthday had come and gone. Friends and family had shown me lots of love. So why was I disappointed?

I was alone and one year older. Like Paul I was content living and traveling alone. I could see the downside of marriage, especially if a couple were in it only for the sex or only in it for the sake of the children or for economics. Like Paul I yearned for the kind of love that is patient and kind and as strong as death (1 Cor 13:4-7; SOS 8:6). I longed for the day when a sweetheart of a man like Barnabas would crave my body, take my hand and accompany me on a trip to Paris and Rome via Crete as my lover and my husband  (Mark 15:43; Acts 9:36; Acts 13:2) to show and tell the world that Love makes the world go’ round.

Feeling the need for some encouragement, I surfed the net and landed on a post written by a woman by the name of Tara  http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2013/04/13-bible-verses-to-overcome-disappointment/ Here I read a comment from a woman who had lost her husband, her family seemed to be turning their backs on her and the electricity in her home was about to be shut off. My heart went out to her. Eight years ago I too had lost my husband and things looked very bleak. I remember feeling abandoned by my husband and by God.  Reading comments posted by a woman named Susan and others, I wanted to leave a comment on Tara’s Blog to encourage not only Janet, the Woman who had lost her husband, but other people who were facing huge losses and disappointments in their life in these post US election days.

Here’s an edited version of what I wrote:

Thank you Tara for listening to that wee small voice in the middle of the night. That wee voice led you to write us who feel let down and discouraged today. So I too have something to say to encourage Janet and others.

When my husband drowned, I felt like God had abandoned me. I had lost my job a few months before and then with the death of my husband, finances and an illness in the family forced me to consider moving. I did not want to move! But after the car was repossessed, I got lost while travelling to the suburbs by bus to my daughter’s home for my grandson’s birthday party.

With the kind help of strangers, I found my way. As the bus pulled up and stopped at the stop before I needed to disembark, the bus driver spotted a lone traveler running to catch us. As we waited, a wave of anxiety came over me. I looked at my watch to see how late I would be for the party. Then I looked up and noticed the Alabaster Box Church just outside the bus window. The name on the sign said Bethany-Newton. At that very moment, a sense of peace washed over me. I knew God was with me. I knew that it was God’s plan that I move near my daughter and that Bethany-Newton would give me and my family the support we needed to grieve the loss of my beloved husband. I did and with the move I was able to buy a car.

Last year, 7 years after my husband’s death, I made a wish. I wished I could move back downtown. To be honest I had wished that several times over the years. But last year, my heart was really in the wish. The very next day, I got a phone call from the realtor who sold me my house, asking me if I wanted to list and move back downtown. I did and the day before my open house, I went out back to clean up a mess I had noticed outside my gate.  I opened the gate and there to my wondrous eyes was a beautiful sight. The spewed concrete and the long gangly weeds were gone.

Someone unknown to me had replaced that mess with a carpet of green turf.  At that moment, I knew. God had a buyer already picked out for me. I would be moving!  But I had to trust and wait on that knowledge. The people who put an offer on my house, wanted quick possession. I had to trust and say yes before I had found anything downtown.  Remembering the beautiful sight outside my gate…and trusting on the wee small voice of conviction I received with that sight, I accepted their offer.  The very next day, the Realtor phoned with a brand-new listing. It was perfect for me. But…the sellers were not accepting offers until the Wednesday after two scheduled weekend open houses. Two hundred people attended those open houses and multiple offers were made. My offer was the one they accepted.

So, Janet trust God’s love for you. God is with you. Take Susan’s advice. Find someone to encourage you…even if it is someone you don’t know or a beautiful sight or coincidence that speaks to your faith. I think God speaks to each of us differently and depends on us and those who love to share and act upon their faith in God with others. God is eternal and mighty! God created humanity…us…in God’s own image and likeness. We Christians are called to embrace one another in Jesus’ name as sisters, brothers, neighbours, friends and beloveds of a mighty GOD who is with us forever.

We don’t all think alike and we often disagree about politics and how to protect and provide for those we love.

The Good News is…God does save those who trust in God…and even if a loved one drowns or gets swept away from us by a tide of ill will, we know God has not forsaken them or us. So, let us be patient with one another and trust that God has not abandoned them or us. Let us wait until they and we are ready and able with a whole heart, to embrace each other and pledge our mutual allegiance…trusting that God’s Love working in us and through us will in the fullness of time give one another the love, the freedom and the protection to travel unhindered across every border.