The Bungee Cord 4-15-24

Hello,

When a previous congregation was interviewing me, two very interesting questions were asked of me. The first was, “Who is you favorite musical artist?” This was a question that I had never been asked in all my previous interviews. Amazingly enough, on the way to the interview, I was actually thinking about that question. It is a question that I don’t often ponder in my mind, but there it was, in my thoughts just before it was asked. So, when it was asked of me, I had had time to consider my answer. “James Taylor.”

The second question had not popped into my mind before I sat in that interview. “What is one word that would describe you?” I suppose that people who conduct or prepare regularly for interviews would have been prepared for such a question, but I was not. I paused a bit as I sifted through a bunch of words, and the word that surfaced was, “Patient”. It is a word that other people used to describe me as I worked for many years with youth. I really liked working with the youth. I enjoyed their zest for life, their energy, their questions, and being part of their lives when life changes so quickly. As anyone who works with youth will echo, it also takes a lot of patience. Patience to deal with their growing pains and developing personalities. I think that one of the reasons that I so enjoyed working with the youth is because I am a fairly patient person.

However, I wish that this second question would have popped into my mind before my interview, because on the way home from the interview with that question still percolating in my mind, I think a different word would have been more central to my description. That word is “hopeful”. That may seem to be a strange answer coming from someone for whom depression is a daily companion, because when depression bites, it has a way of dragging one into a dark place where hopelessness becomes a firmly affixed blindfold. And yet, it is exactly out of that darkness where my hopefulness is born.

I have experienced as the first chapter of the book of John says, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And I have experienced what the 8th chapter of Romans says, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For me, it was and is, when I am in the deepest darkness that the power of God’s love in Jesus Christ is most palpable and present. It is when I no longer have the strength to “hang in there” that I discover that I am being held. It is when I am told that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but realize I simply cannot make it there, that I discover that Jesus, the light of the world comes to me. It is when I am so confused and become blindly dizzy from spinning around and around that I discover that “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” I am hopeful because Jesus Christ, the incarnate God Almighty went to the abyss of darkness on the cross and rose on the third day in a victory of eternal light and life.

It is out of the hope that God has implanted in me through Jesus Christ when I confront the darkest moments in life, that I have hope to face those that are not so dark. Like…I have hope that my work with the youth will make a difference in their lives, even when my work seems to make such small dents….I have hope that the sermons I have preached have fueled a fire of faith in the listeners, even when I have seen blank stares….I have hope that my children will take on life with courage and care, even when they have seen their father faltering in those very things…I have hope that nations who are committed to building up their muscles as they stand toe to toe with their enemies might come to see the tears that run down each other’s cheeks when tragedy strikes.

I have hope. Not because I see the power in my hands or the wisdom in my mind. Not because there is a goldfish of goodness swimming in the daunting seas of our lives. Not because I am a naïve movie goer who translates the fictional and feel good happy ending to every movie into the real world of ongoing suffering and pain. Not because I wear rose colored glasses that filter out tragically sad things. No…I have hope because I have seen that the one who permeates all of creation has taken hold of me and with the ferocity of a mother bear protecting her cub says to anything and everything that might come along, “You can’t have this one. This one is mine!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernbeger

Like

Comment

Share