9A Worship

How do we view the world? Our life? If you are like most people, like me, when all is comfortable, all is going well, the larger questions of life lose their urgency. Comfort and ease can bring complacency and entitlement. But when trouble comes, when the house burns down, when the waves crash around us, when we do not even know if we will make it through the day or week, our thoughts often turn to bigger questions, eternal questions. We ask, “Is anyone in charge?” We ask, “Does anyone care about me, my life?” We ask, “Is there any purpose, any meaning, to what I’m going through?”

When our life is turned upside-down, our when there is great turmoil in the world around us, we are given an opportunity. Those moments can lead us to honest reflection and allow us to reset priorities and regain perspective. 

Paul had received a clear message from God … Acts 9, “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

When trouble, hardship, beatings, imprisonment, when rocks were thrown at him, when others wished to kill him, when the ship he was on was sinking due to a violent storm, when others called him crazy, Paul knew God was still at work in his life, and in the circumstances and lives around him. Paul trusted that God was in control (sovereign), and that God loved him and would be with him no matter how troubling, how hurtful, how devastating, things were.

That confidence and trust is not evidence of naivety … it is, instead, an honest admission of our own limitations, and a growing belief in the unlimited power and love of God. Joy in the journey, and the storms.