Do you feel the world is spinning so fast you can

Do you feel the world is spinning so fast you cannot keep up?  I do!  Things seem to be happening so fast.  In the four days that will ensue from the time this is written until it might be found in in the published Saratoga Sun, one can only imagine what might have happened.  When we went to bed October 7, we certainly did not expect the headlines which greeted us October 8.  The 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan hardly made the news as our attention was fixed on the horrors in Israel.

We struggle as our world groans under the weight of events over which we have little or no control. What can we do? How can we help?  Underneath our grief, our shock, our disbelief – we wonder what might happen even to us.   How can you, how can I, offer hope to those who suffer?

I have heard so many people comment, when they are faced with challenges, that they do not know how they get through dark days without God, without knowing Jesus, without the prayers of others which sustain them with peace.  I wonder how many who might read this column agree.

When faced with darkness, to whom or what do you turn?  The words, spoken weekly in many churches are “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”.  I turn to those words, I turn to the Scriptures, I turn to prayer, I turn to songs of praise and worship.  These give me hope.  If you are reading this, I assume that you also turn to God in times of darkness and despair.  I also suspect that you also turn to this same loving God in times of joy and gladness.  If so, consider yourself blessed and a blessing to others.

Knowing all this, I ask again, how can YOU be a blessing of hope to others this day?  Others who do not know Jesus, who have never been exposed to His love, or who have been turned away, rejected, or hurt by a church?  How can your own faith bless them?

I suspect the first and most important thing you can do is to listen deeply to their fears and concerns.  Hold their unbelief and fear gently while you walk with them.  We witness to our own love of Christ by loving others.  We look for this love in others.  We look for the influences of God’s love all around us.  We are blessed to see the beauty of his creation which surrounds us.  We can refuse to play the “ain’t it awful” game.  We can pray that our own faith and confidence in God will offer a place of refuge for those in our lives who are hurting.

“Don’t hide your light.  Let it shine brightly before others, so that your commendable works will shine as light upon them, an then they will give their praise to your Father in Heaven.”