April 2020
OF PRESENT MOMENTS
As followers of Jesus, we are working toward the practice of
unconditional love through the values of:
– Human Dignity – Creation Care -Spiritual Formation
BISHOP’S COMMENTS
ON PEOPLE, PLACES, & THINGS
Allow me to share a prayer which comes from the book by Samuel Miller, Prayers for Daily Use. It is a volume possibly familiar to many of you, for it was well used and loved by my beloved mentor and predecessor, our own Rusty Kimsey.
Let us pray:
“O Thou who art from everlasting to everlasting, whose glory is not dimmed by time or change, we thy children, swept by all the storms of this mortal life, beseech thee to steady us in this shifting scene and grant us a new vision of eternal things that we may take hold and press forward. Refresh us by thy Holy Spirit and renew a right mind within us, that we may know beyond the peradventure of a doubt that Thou art our salvation, and nothing on earth can shake the sure repose of thine everlasting arms. Deepen us down, past all the thin and painted charms of this world’s mock securities, until we stand upon that rock of ages more firm than earth itself, trusting in thee beyond all human sight and at peace with time and travail such as mortal man must suffer. In Christ therefore we lift our eyes to hope. Amen.”
Deepen us down, he prays.
While I was writing this, the earth shook beneath us, literally; the lights and window dressings swayed, and for a moment we planted our feet firmly and held on. We deepened down hoping we were on solid footing as a rare 6.5 quake rattled the inner mountain region. Like we needed anything more to rattle us!
But it was a stark reminder of this prayer – we need to find our solid footing, and in such times as we are facing, that footing is found in our hope, in our confidence that God is with us in the very epicenter of a crisis. And as the Apostle writes in the letter to the Romans, such hope will not disappoint us. No matter how frightened or uncertain or fatigued we may become, we can believe beyond what we see and experience that God is with us.
Whether in the midst of a pandemic, or an earthquake, we can believe that “nothing on earth can shake the sure repose of thine everlasting arms.”
An old gospel hymn affirms,
“What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the every lasting arms;
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the ever lasting arms;”
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
by Anthony Johnson Showalter and Elisha Hoffman
“For I know the plans have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11