Dear Friends and Family of RRUMC,
What the heck is wrong with 2020? This year sure seems flawed.
It seems like there is something wrong with this year in history. It just seems as though nothing will go right in 2020. I hear people say time and time again, “Is it 2021 yet? When will I wake up from the nightmare that is 2020?” This year is flawed for sure.
All through the month of September, Paul and I have been preaching a sermon series called, “Flawed.” The word flaw means, “A mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a substance or object,” according to dictionary.com. It means there is something wrong.
If that is the definition, then 2020 is most definitely flawed. In our sermon series, Paul and I are talking about the fact that there was only one person who was truly never flawed. That person is Jesus Christ. If he is the standard that we are to all hold ourselves up against, then guess what? WE ARE ALL FLAWED.
We all have a mark, a fault, or some other imperfection that mars us. Just like the year 2020, we are all flawed. How can we not focus on the flaws and instead focus on what God is going to do with the faults and flaws that we have? We spend so much time trying to hide our faults, fix our faults, or make excuses for them. What if we embraced them, not as a crutch or an excuse, but as a reason to rise up with them?
COVID-19 has done some horrible things in our world and in our society. However, it has also brought the best out of a lot of people. It has sparked a lot of creative juices and ideas in people figuring out how to do what we used to do through the new filter that is COVID-19. Just look at your church. Paul and I now preach from the back of a pickup truck at the 8:30am service. We do communion with little sealed wafers and juice cups. Your temperatures are taken at the 10:00am service and we are all wearing masks. COVID-19 has helped our 11:25am streaming service improve technology, lighting, sound, and also brought the children’s messages to a service that did not normally hear or see it.
This flaw of 2020 has become something that has caused your church to rise up in new, creative, fun, and yet safe and responsible ways. Why? We still are all about helping people meet Jesus Christ in the midst of their story.
What do you see as your flaws right now? What are the things in your life that you have been using as an excuse for staying down, all the while God has been waiting to use as a reason to raise you up? Flaws are flaws. We all have them.
Those are also the things that make you completely unique and special when compared to everyone else. Give them to God and watch what he can do with you and your flaws.
Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Dan