Dear Rose Park,
Yesterday’s weather forecast was pretty bleak. The morning began with a beautiful sunrise and a cool breeze with warmer temperatures coming towards noon. The weather forecasters were predicting that the afternoon however, would be much different. They predicted high winds, dark skies, and heavy rain for nearly four or five hours in our area. A severe thunderstorm warning went out resulting in multiple cancellations (including Simon’s first football practice). Overall, the forecast was pretty doom and gloom but reality was much different.
There’s an old joke that weather-men and weather-women can be wrong seventy-percent of the time and still keep their job. It’s not that they were completely wrong, it just seemed like the forecast was much more severe than the reality. I’m sure someone somewhere experienced high winds, dark skies, and heavy rain for nearly four or five hours, but in Holland those conditions only lasted about ninety-minutes. By the time I took Rudy out for a walk around 7:00pm the sun was shining through the clouds, the road was completely dry, and I even saw the faint trace of a rainbow. It got me thinking, I wonder if the forecast in our lives is sometimes far worse than the reality.
For example, I wonder if our anxiety of the future paralyzes us so much that we miss opportunities to grow in our faith and find greater joy in our relationship with God. I worry our fear of potential difficulties or losses overwhelms us so much that we miss opportunities for further intimacy with God. We hear the stories and testimonies of others who sacrificed in order to grow and we become afraid of the forecast for our own lives. There’s no doubt about it, high winds, dark skies, and heavy rain will come in all of our lives but the reality of drawing nearer to the Creator of the Universe outweighs the forecast every time.
I hope you’re not so afraid of the forecast in your life that you’re unwilling to step forward in faith. I hope we, the people of Rose Park, are not so afraid of the forecast of our life that we’re unwilling to remain obedient to God. The forecast might call for high winds, dark skies, and heavy rain but the faithfulness of God will always prevail. It will show up in a handshake, a hug, a card, a cup of coffee, or even a rainbow.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark