Wesley Church

People Blessing People

Daily Devotional July 29

Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing
… And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.
      -1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14, NRSV

Have you ever had your hands full? Not metaphorically, but literally. Hands full of boxes and packages and bags. I’m sure you have. I have, in part because I’m one of those people who apparently believes deep down that having to take more than one trip from the car to the front door is some kind of failure. For some reason, I feel compelled to carry all my groceries and shopping bags in one trip. That’s the kind of full I mean. I’ve had my hands full. You’ve had your hands full.

Imagine your hands are full. A half-dozen shopping bags in this hand. Three packages from Amazon Prime in the other, each box stacked precariously on top of the other. A gallon of milk hanging from one inadequate little pinky finger. Your hands are full. And imagine that a friend with free hands is walking toward you, and you see them, and they see you, and you say… “can you hold this for me for a second?” And they do. They grab the milk, and one of the Amazon packages, and a few of the shopping bags, and suddenly you’re able to breathe.

“Can you hold this for me for a second?” That’s the question you ask a friend when you’re carrying too much physical stuff. Yet I think that’s also the question you ask a friend, and the question you ask your church, when you’re carrying too much spiritual and emotional “stuff,” too. That’s the question you ask at the point when all that stuff is causing you to lose faith. That’s the question you ask at that point when you’re just done, that point when you’re carrying too much doubt, too much loss, too much pain. That’s the question you ask at the point when you’re feeling (in the words of today’s scripture) “faint-hearted” or “weak.” Can you hold this for me for a second? Can you hold my faith for a second? I’m having trouble holding it right now.

In his book The Sin of Certainty, scholar and author Peter Enns writes (of church): “I need to be a part of something bigger than myself to believe with me – and when needed to believe for me.” When needed, to believe for me. That’s what we do, church. We believe with each other… and when one of us is struggling to summon up faith and hope, we temporarily believe for each other, too. 

If you’ve hit that point in this season of covid-tide… that point when your “stuff” seems too heavy… that point when things like faith and hope and belief seem out-of-reach… trust that your church is with you. Keeping the faith alongside you. Hoping alongside you. Believing alongside you. Believing for you, if you need. We’ll take turns. We’ll hold your “stuff” and give you a chance to breathe… and we’ll be here waiting when you’re ready to pick up and hold your faith again.

That’s who we are as people of God… and after all:

Our God is bigger than coronavirus. 
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too. 
We are people blessing people. 
We are Wesley Church.   

Blessings
Pastor Candy

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