December 12, 2015

“When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:34 – 40

“And so, when the Lord says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, from all thy heart and from all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” let the faithful soul put on the unfading love of its Author and Ruler, and subject itself also entirely to His will in Whose works and judgments true justice and tender-hearted compassion never fail. For although a man be wearied out with labors and many misfortunes, there is good reason for him to endure all in the knowledge that adversity will either prove him good or make him better.” Pope Leo I, (400 – 461) Sermon XII, “For All The Saints”, volume III (p. 49 – 50)

Life can really be hard. Life can be hard because of what we have lost: like the loss of a job, or the loss of a spouse or parent. And, sometimes life is hard because we just hit a series of misfortunes. Just because we have faith, and we live a G-dly life, and we attend church and Sunday school on a regular basis does not guarantee us a life without trouble. Trouble is inherent in the life of any person – we just won’t all deal with the same trouble. But as I have said this year in my devotions, the troubles in our lives help us to learn about ourselves, our faith, and our ability to keep moving forward. Some days we feel as if we are standing on the mountaintop. Other times we feel as if we are walking in a blizzard with our heads down, plowing forward, one difficult step after another. Life is not always about the places we end up so much as how we managed to get there. And every experience we have, no matter if it is good or bad, each experience helps to build our “faith muscles” where we learn to mount up the strength of Eagles to endure with the presence of the Holy Spirit leading the way.

Pastor Dave