Greetings Church Friends and Family,
In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I pray that all of you are happy and healthy and safe.
That sounds really nice doesn’t it? The fact is that we are all feeling some sort of fatigue. It seems like just a week ago it was a daily occurrence to turn on the TV at 2:30pm to hear our Governor and Medical Director give us the COVID-19 update. How many cases? How many hospitalizations? How many had died in the last 24 hours?
In the midst of all of that, we were reminded once again that racism is still rampant and thriving in our country with the murder of George Floyd. We then witnessed the protests calling for racial justice and equality. Eventually, some of those peaceful protests turned into looting and rioting. There is so much out there that is hitting us from all directions. It can all add up to being fatigued. It can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. Fatigue is defined this way, “extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.”
We are all feeling that in one way, shape or form. We are seeing it as people disregard the guidelines for health and well-being as they go back out into public. Cases are spiking. Our country seems more divided than ever.
I needed this verse that a wonderful person from the church sent to me in an article earlier this week. It says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. ... Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:7-12, 16-18)
We are being inwardly renewed even as on the outside we are wasting away. It seems like our world and our country are wasting away with all the sadness, disease, racism, and injustice that is all around us. That is why we, as Christians, are called to live our lives from the inside out. Our power comes from within because it is not our power at all. It is the power of God that wells up within us to change the world around us.
In the midst of the fatigue, may you find the power that comes from within. It is Jesus Christ living within you.
Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Dan