Tomorrow, at Graceview, we will have our first in-person, on-site worship service since March 15th. Six months, almost to the day. It’s mind-boggling and unprecedented and just another 2020 reality. I’ve said before that I carry a lot of anxiety into this return to in-person worship. And that is true, but I also know that one of the best cures for anxiety is worshipping well. So, this post is as much for me as it is for you. I need to focus on God. I need to remember that I can trust his strength, his timing, his provision. I need to remember that He goes with me, every moment of every day.

So – let’s get our hearts centred for worship.

Hillsong United is a contemporary worship band. They recorded an album called “Of Dirt and Grace, Live from the Land.” Each song on the album was recorded live at a significant-to-the-life-and-ministry-of-Jesus location in Israel. If I’m not mistaken, this was recorded at the synagogue at Capernaaum:

A prayer to centre us and prepare us for worship:

Though we are not able to sing with our voices indoors right now, I will be encouraging my congregation to sing with their hearts and souls tomorrow (while keeping our mouths closed):

Matt Redman is a music leader and song writer. He’s perhaps best known for the song “Heart of Worship,” which this quote sums up pretty well, even though I don’t know that he was specifically discussing the song when he said this:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep on worshipping God!

Today is the 19th anniversary of 9/11. It seems almost impossible that so much time has passed since the horrible events of that day. So many of the feelings and images are so fresh in my mind.

At least partially that is because of the stage production Come From Away. It chronicles the experiences of Gander, Newfoundland, which became the place where 38 in-progress flights landed when the decision was made to ground all flights over North America. That little airport, which hadn’t seen a lot of action since planes that could make it across the Atlantic on one tank of fuel were engineered, suddenly looked like this:

The soundtrack of that show is on my rotation of songs and when I’m driving, I usually just shuffle and listen to whatever comes up next. With some regularly it’s a track from CFA. I can sing/speak along with most of them by heart.

Today is a day for grief remembered. Even in the midst of the pandemic, we cast our thoughts back 19 years to the experiences of that day and the days afterward.

And in doing so there are some lessons: while this is an unprecedented time, we have been through hard times before. We have learned to pick up the pieces. We have adjusted. We have found ways to be resilient.

So even as we remember grief, I encourage you – we will get through this difficult time, too. One day, we will be amazed to think – oh wow, that was 19 years ago.

I’d also encourage you that even in the midst of heartbreakingly tragic moments in history there are good people who just want to help. Like the entire town of Gander did.

In the meantime, may this be true today, and every day:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, remember the grief but also remember the lessons. And trust in God to heal broken hearts and bind up our wounds!

There’s a prophecy in Isaiah, that says this:

In some translations, this is written in third person singular (How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings good tidings, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!). And it understood to be foretelling Jesus, who stood in the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah, declaring his mission as one of proclaiming “good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed and the year of the Lord’s favour,” which are words from just a little later in Isaiah (chapter 61:1,2; read by Jesus in Luke 4:18,19).

But I admit to you that I rather love this translation. Which says to me that all of us who follow Jesus are invited into that mission. We who follow Jesus are those who bring good news. We do it with word and with deeds. We do it year in and year out. We do it in big ways and small ways. We do it for those we know and those we will never meet.

And it honours Jesus, the original one to bring good news.

It may be hard this year, as we struggle with so many difficult things – a pandemic, an awakening to the racial inequality of our countries, wild fires that burn out of control, floods, famine – to remember that it is still our job to bring good news. Every day.

And yet, that is our mission. That is our way of honouring God who has done more for us than we could ask or imagine. That is who we are called to be.

Dear friends, until tomorrow, keep on showing up for the mission. Keep on showing grace. Keep on bringing good news in all that you do. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of you, who follow Jesus!

(Really, does it get any better than some classic Winnie the Pooh? I love it when a children’s story holds deep and abiding truth – glimmers of the Gospel. Give thanks, dear friends, to the One from whom every good and perfect gift originates!)

This is the year of learning new things. At the beginning of the year, most of us had never heard of physical distancing. We didn’t think about high-touch surfaces and viral loads. We didn’t think of respiratory droplets and the distance they can travel. We gathered together with ease. I remember singing at the top of my lungs at a concert at the end of February. Thinking about that now makes me feel anxious

Now, we have been through about 6 months that none of us could have imagined.

And we’re tired.

One of the latest new phrases we’ve learned is ‘pandemic fatigue.’ It’s what we’re feeling now. Have you noticed? People are tired of all of the things that have become part of our new normal. We’re tired of worrying about high touch surfaces, having to keep distance, not being able to have festivals and concerts, not being able to be in the stands to watch our favourite sports team.

In the early days of the pandemic, it was easy to be kind. People were going out of their way to thank others, to look out for others, to find ways to shine a little light into a dark world.

But now, we’re tired.

And when we get tired, it gets hard to remember things like kindness.

So today, I want to encourage you – be kind. It seems like a small thing, but it is so important. Don’t let pandemic fatigue turn you into someone who lacks kindness. Because our tired world needs your kindness more than ever now. And because when you’re kind, you reflect the face of Jesus into the world that he died to save.

Scripture says, when you are kind, you find life, righteousness and honour.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, be kind!

These are both 100% accurate!:

Ha. I haven’t seen Monday jokes for a while…so maybe the world is a bit more normal now that they are popping up on my social media again?:

Love this:

The fine art of the “Dad joke”:

Oh gosh, the look on the kid’s face! Hee hee!:

Sadly, this is also quite accurate:

More music humour (plus, is there anything better than doggies and babies?!):

It’s funny cause it’s true (but it’s also informative, so bonus!):

And finally, a blessing for your day:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep laughing and thinking!

Today we look at a short passage written by Paul to the church in Colossae. The thing is, Paul was in jail when he wrote it. He was in the wilderness, but he didn’t let the wilderness have the final say. Instead he used the time in jail to teach, challenge and encourage churches. God doesn’t waste time – even time in jail.

Let’s begin with Eric’s prelude, “Soon and very soon” by Andrae Crouch, arranged by Jack Schrader:

A prayer to centre us as we worship:

Our first hymn is #315, A mighty fortress is our God:

Our Scripture passage is Colossians 1:24-29

Here is the sermon, “Redeeming the wilderness,”:

Our final hymn is #461 Be thou my vision:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep trusting that God is redeeming the wilderness in your life!

It’s been a while since I shared an Andrew Peterson song. So I thought I’d start there for this week’s worship resources. This is “The Sower’s Song” and it is literally line after line of scripture set to music. I remember hearing Andrew speak about this song and he was telling the story that a fan was trying to compliment him on his songwriting skills in this song. And every time the fan complimented a bit of the lyrics, Andrew had to respond with, “Nope, I didn’t write that, that’s from Scripture.” It made me giggle, and now when ever I come across one of these lines while reading Scripture, I smile and think of this song an that story:

My friend Shelagh is sharing her voice with us again, she is singing selected verses of #760 in the hymn book, “Where cross the crowded ways of life.” It’s a familiar tune, but not familiar words to me. But the poetry is quite gorgeous, so enjoy!

A prayer that I found on the Re:Worship blog, which is not based on tomorrow’s scripture lesson, but is quite appropriate for our current series and for tomorrow’s message:

Both of these quotes made me think a little differently about worship, and I like that:

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep on giving God His breath back!

Sometimes we just need to remember the promise of God: that his love for us will not fail, no matter what.

Even if the mountains move and the hills disappear.

In the midst of all that this year has thrown at us it can be hard to remember that. It can be easy to get caught up in the fear and the despair and the anxiety of these times. It can be easy to be distracted and distraught.

But no matter what – you are loved. Period. Full stop.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, trust in the promises of God!

The Janet, who is always helpful, always deep-thinking, always kind, sent me this quote:

Sometimes when the world feels a little too big, a little to daunting, a little too absurd, a little too frustrating and a little too frightening, I remind myself of this phrase that belongs to Jesus: “be faithful in the little things.”

When I was a kid, my family had a phrase, “Becky-sized.” (They called me Becky back then…I MUCH prefer Rebekah now, but I also strive to have grace for those who’ve known me most of my life, are dear to me, and sometimes revert to calling me Becky.) We used it to mean things that were little-er, smaller. Things I felt I could take on and handle.

So I have an affinity for caring about the little things, the Becky-sized things.

But I also trust Jesus, that being faithful in little things can be a powerful way to live. A way of making your life a work of art. A way of training yourself to faithfulness, so that when the big things come along, faithfulness will be your default.

Today I want to encourage you that the little things in which you’ve been faithful weren’t so little to the people on the receiving end. To you it was just a kind word, to the one who received it, it may have been the best thing that happened that day. To you it was just a few hours helping a friend, to the friend receiving your help, it was part of what made the task possible. To you it was just a small donation, but to the one in need, it was a donation that mad a difference.

Until tomorrow, dear friends, remember to be faithful in the little things, because then you will learn to also be faithful in the big things. Trust that God uses every little thing to continue to help you build a life that is a work of art.