The Bungee Cord 1-17-22

Hello,

Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for your care.

Thank you for being a friend (add the “Golden Girls” tune)

A week has passed since my surgery to remove a kidney due to the unwelcomed residence of a cancer tumor that decided to make its home there. The first several days of recovery were rough (my wife, Kate, knows that I am a bit of a wimp, but even she would say it was a rugged road). I am letting my body heal with some rest, and I have every expectation that I’ll be back in the saddle at work a week from today. Likewise, everything that I have been told by the doctors gives me every expectation that this cancer is behind me. Thank God.

When I was younger, I thought the job of a pastor was to challenge people to be faithful Christians, and for some pastors that may be true. But when I was in seminary, I ran into a professor, Gerhard Forde, who gave me a different direction to pursue. Instead of challenging people to be faithful Christians, he said that the job of a pastor is to ignite and fuel a fire of God’s grace in their lives so that people might have the faith to overcome the challenges of life.

That stuck in my heart, and that is what I try to do as a pastor, and as the writer of the Bungee Cord. It has become very clear to me that life is full of challenges, many small, but some very big. In the scheme of things this kidney/cancer challenge has felt big, but I know that many who have been met with the diagnosis of cancer face a far greater challenge than I have. I can also think of a Mack Truck full of different kinds of challenges far more severe than mine that hit people, and maybe have even hit you.

As I trudge my way through the challenges of life, it does not seem to me that God, who loves me so much that Jesus, his Son, would die for me, would involve himself in my life by giving me yet another challenge….a challenge that I could never fulfill. Rather, as I read the first chapter of the book of John, “and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”, it seems to me that instead of giving me a challenge, he has given me himself. Notice that John does not write, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel”. That’s a challenge. John writes, “the light shines in the darkness”. That is powerful hope.

Each one of your “likes”, comments, emails, messages have been logs of grace thrown on the fire of God’s love for me. Each one of them embodied a depth of care and love for me that I could not have imagined. When I needed a bonfire in this darkness, you fueled it! Thank you.

So, it is my hope that a tangible sign of my thanks to you is my weekly Bungee Cord. I hope that in receiving it you see a log of God’s grace being placed upon a fire of hope for you and the world. I hope that if the fire is only smoldering in your life, the Bungee Cord may be a spark to ignite it again. Some years ago, I wrote a song entitled, “Lord, When You Draw Near There Is Hope.” I have seen the truth of those words as you have drawn near to me, bringing Christ to me. I hope those words ring true to you, as I draw near to you in Christ-born love.

Thanks, again.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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