My Last (Written) Words to Northview's East Abbotsford Campus

FINAL (WRITTEN) WORDS

Since March 2020, I used the written word as a primary means of sharing my thoughts and heart with the East Abbotsford Campus community. It has been a joy to sit down every week, carve out some time, and share some reflections and musings with you all. Every week my words were prompted by something in my own personal life, or something in the life of our church, or something happening in our society at large. For those of you who faithfully read, let me say: Thank You.

What follows were my final written words to the East Abby community. I’ve wondered for a few weeks what I would want my final words to be to you all. When I woke up one morning I went down the stairs just before 6:00, with a wide-eyed 4-week-old Oliver in my right arm, and I saw the sign that hangs on our living room wall—as I do every morning.

When I read those words through my bleary-eyes it struck me that they are well suited as my final (written) words. The words come from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12). This one verse, jam-packed with three pairs of instructions, has been a source of encouragement for me throughout my time as the Campus Pastor of East Abbotsford. It hangs on my wall partly because it was a gift (thanks Mom…I know at least she reads these blurbs!), and partly because I think it provides a great daily framework for the Christian life.

BE JOYFUL IN HOPE

The Christian life is one of hope. We can have strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow not because of an institution or a theory, but because of a person. His name is Jesus. I hope you know him. He’s breathtakingly remarkable.

He is the smartest, kindest, most endearing, most approachable, most powerful, and most loving person alive today. All of God’s promises find their YES! in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). It is because of him that we have hope. Jesus is the one who through his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and soon return has won our salvation and has guaranteed our future. He has dealt with our sin fully and finally. He invites us to receive the gift of (an) eternal (kind of) life. For those of us who turn aside from living according to our own ways and expertise, and turn to Jesus in trust that his way is The Way that aligns with reality, we truly have not merely strength for today but a bright hope for tomorrow. Through our belief in this good news about Jesus, we are made new creations and are filled with his Holy Spirit as we wait for the Spirit to make all of creation new on that Great Day ahead of us.

We have this great hope, which means we can also have joy! Jesus followers are not the happy-clappy type of people who go through their life by the power of positive thinking. Christians are not joyful because of our circumstantial situations, we are joyful because of our hope. We are people who continue to live in the real world (more on that soon!), and we do so with an unquenchable joy within the everyday stuff of our lives because of our great hope in Jesus.

BE PATIENT IN AFFLICTION

We are people who are joyful in our hope, and hope is essential for our joy because our everyday life is lived in the real world (see, I told you we’d talk about it soon!). The real world has moments of sunshine and smiles, and it also has moments of heartbreak and heaviness. Of this we can be sure: the enemy, the world, and our flesh will prompt a vast-number of trials and troubles. I’m not sure who I heard it from first, but it is true that pastoral ministry can be described as the simple but difficult work of helping people prepare for and endure suffering well. Which isn’t all that surprising, since much of the Christian life is actually simply that: preparing for and enduring suffering well. For reasons beyond our understanding, life is difficult and growth hurts.

This idea of the difficulty of life and the painfulness of growth actually undergirds this Pauline instruction to be patient in affliction. To be sure, we should work to aid those who suffer, to bear the burdens of others, and to seek the healing and flourishing of those around us. Christians are not people of passivity in the face of pain. However, we also recognize that this side of glory, pain will be a reality in our life. This pain will be present even as we follow Jesus, grow into his likeness, and enjoy the eternal kind of life of discipleship.

This is why patience is critical when we are afflicted. We know that the Spirit is producing growth in us through the affliction, and we know not how long this particular affliction will be with us. Patience is easier said than done. Nevertheless, in the face of affliction we should be people of patience and trust.

BE FAITHFUL IN PRAYER

Prayer is a natural result of the surety of our hope within our sustained afflictions. Just as yellow and blue produce green, so too do hope and affliction produce prayer. As Christians, we recognize that prayer is not merely us talking to the ceiling or to our inner-self, but it is talking to the One God named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And because we are talking with the God of all creation, our prayers actually do something in this world.

I was talking with a friend this past week in his new backyard. He was telling me that he asked the guys at his Bible study table to pray with him for this past year that he would find a bigger home with more affordable rent. He had his reasons. The guys at his table kind of looked at him sideways week after week, but they still prayed to the God of the universe that their brother would find a place to rent that was bigger and cheaper. Long story short: my friend now lives in a bigger place and he pays less money. In this economy?!

Now I’m not saying that we should expect God to answer our every prayer and give us everything that we think we need, want, or deserve. But what I am saying is that we should not be surprised that God listens to and acts on the prayers of our people. So we should faithfully and continually pray in the midst of whatever situation we find ourselves in, trusting that our Triune God will accomplish his purposes.