In this unprecedented year, I’ve published a blog post every day for the last 200 days. It’s been 100 days since I last paused to recognize how long I’ve been at this.

At 100 days into this venture I shared some insights that the first hundred days had taught me. Today I want to share this little bit of wisdom, which a colleague of mine posted on facebook:

I’ve been thinking recently that many of us (myself included) have spent a good portion of this year waiting for things to get back to normal. And that impulse comes to us naturally. It’s exhausting to live in a rapidly changing environment. It’s exhausting to have to pay attention all the time. It’s exhausting to process the amount of new information that seems to be coming at us all the time these days.

But I liked this reminder that the waiting time isn’t a wasted time.

Or at least, it doesn’t have to be. God is doing something in each of us. God is making each of us grow – and if we turn to him for guidance, for strength, for peace in the midst of our exhaustion, this time will not be wasted no matter what happens next, in these unprecedented and interesting times.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may God continue to make each of us grow in the way He sees fit.

My friend The Rev. Matthew Ruttan (who writes the amazing Up Devo) shared this short scripture video filled with passages that speak of God’s providence. That is – the theological concept of God’s protective care…in other words, the idea that God looks out for us, provides for us, and cares for us.

The great thing, is that I got a Facebook notification of Matthew’s post after having a day where I’m struggling with what to blog about. I’d started a post and abandoned it before a meeting I had to attend. By the time I got home from the meeting, I was running out of time.

Did you see that? Through my friend Matthew, God provided a topic for my blog post. You could say it is coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe that God looks out for us.

I hope this video (which has no copyright issues) brightens your day, and reminds you that God is looking out for you!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep trusting that God cares and works for the good in your life, and in the lives of others!

(I came across this prayer – I’m pretty sure that it was posted by one of my Jewish friends and I was delighted to think that as people of different faiths, we might use the same words to pray. I hope it is a blessing to you!)

I’ve been coming across some really great quotes from Charles Spurgeon over the last week or so. If you haven’t heard that name before, he was a preacher and theologian in the 1800’s. He died more than a century and a quarter ago.

What’s amazing is that much of what the church does these days (especially these pandemic days) would be utterly unrecognizable for Spurgeon, and yet his words still resonate.

More than 125 years later, this is still a struggle. I think humans in general are better at focussing on our trials than our blessings. We’re more apt to think trials are permanent and blessings might disappear at any moment.

When really, the opposite is true. Tough times never last. They might feel endless (and the pandemic definitely feels that way right now), but they are not. This, too, shall pass.

And you know, every day of these long months, the sun has come up, the world has continued to be beautiful (the fall colours are outstanding in Ontario right now), and you have continued to be loved – both by your Heavenly Father, and by your friends/family/others who matter. Those blessings have been constant, never faltering.

So I am grateful for Spurgeon’s words, coming at me across the screen of my laptop – a device he probably couldn’t begin to dream up, and which I use as naturally as he would have used pen and paper. This is what the book of Hebrews means when it talks of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ that surround us in faith.

Thank God for the legacy left by those who have run this race before us. Those who now surround us in a great cloud, encouraging and informing our faith. Thank God that we, too, have the opportunity to be part of that great cloud. All it takes is some prayer, encouragement and care of another.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep loving God by loving others!

How you know it’s Fall…:

A bit of wisdom from Robert Louis Stevenson:

Since coming across this I tell Koski to be herself all the time:

Anyone else with me?:

A little Dinosaur pandemic humour…:

I mean, is it just me, or does everyone else feel this way this year, too?:

This is 100% me:

Um, YES:

Just a little reminder, because it’s true:

And this bit of wisdom from Jesus:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep laughing and thinking!

As we continue in this series, we are looking at Esther, chapter 4 – another book I don’t think I have preached on before. But it was a fun and challenging one to tackle!

Here is the sermon:

And our hymn of response, today, was this lovely, light take on “Take my life and let it be,”:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep on following Jesus, right where you are!

Welcome to your weekly collection of resources to get you in the frame of mind for worship tomorrow!

We begin with this song from Chris Tomlin singing with Thomas Rhett, God Who Listens:

And this lovely duet by Caleb & Casey, of a mashup of “I raise a Hallelujah” and “Yes I will,”

Brennan Manning is best known for his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel. I love this quote from him:

Tomorrow at Graceview we will read the fourth chapter of Esther. Ministers, generally, know Esther as the only book of the Bible that doesn’t explicitly mention God. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow, but it reminds me that there are times that we experience God in a more subtle way – times when we experience the fingerprints or footsteps of God rather than God’s explicit or obvious presence. So I share this with you because I hear in it the echo of psalms and the implicit presence of God:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep praising the God of our Salvation!

Back in March and April, we were all marveling at how quiet the world had become. Empty streets, no rush hour, fewer flights, people staying home as much as possible – it all contributed to a sometimes eerie sense of quiet. Certainly an unusual quiet in a city like Toronto, where even the “down times” of any given day or week, still see a fair amount of activity.

But these days we seem to be back to a noisy way of life. I’ve certainly noticed increases of traffic, gun violence, political posturing and general activity in the world outside my door. And as the world begins to grow noisier, it’s really easy for all that noise and all that activity to drown out some important things.

I was pleased to see this posted on Facebook by a colleague of mine:

So what does God have to say about you?

God says you are loved. God says you are alive. God says you are a recipient of His grace. God says you are saved.

So until tomorrow, dear friends, find a quiet place to meditate on these things. Shut out the noise of the world around you and trust i the good word God says about you.

These are anxious days. Our COVID-19 case numbers are climbing in Ontario. Many of us are worried about second wave and/or a second shutdown. Most of us have no idea how the ‘normal’ things are going to roll out in the coming months: What will Christmas look like? When will we be able to travel again? What is going to happen to our economy?

It’s easy to worry about all the “what ifs” that surround us right now. It’s easy to fall into an anxiety loop – feeling anxious about what will happen, and that being reinforced by climbing cases and news stories about what is actually happening right now.

So I say this to you (and to me!):

I admit to you that even in reading this, a part of me (that anxious part of me) wants to reject it. My brain goes “but what if, but what if, but what if…” and my heart rate begins to climb and my hands begin to shake. And left to my own devices, I’m kind of a mess.

So I’m deeply grateful that God doesn’t just leave me to my own devices. I’m thankful for the faithful words of Scripture. I’m grateful for prayerful friends. I’m grateful for the late September warmth that has bloomed in the last day or two, allowing for more time outdoors than in previous days.

And you see, just like that, by focusing on the gifts that God gives, my heart rate has slowed back down, my hands are not shaking any more, and I know that one way or another, we will continue to make it through these challenging days.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, please remember that your anxiety is lying to you, that God’s promises are true, that focussing on the gifts he gives – more than we could ask or imagine – is a great way to find peace despite the anxiety of these days.

(Encouragement, dear friends, you have a gift to give and the world needs you!)