I Am Strong

"a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10

Our church is starting a series on how to persevere when healing or answers are not coming.  How to move forward in the faith when you are continuing to suffer.  Continuing to face hardship or adversity.  Continuing to feel like a certain prayer has not been heard.

Our pastor is looking to answer the question, when your pain and suffering seem to be constant, and God's healing may not come in your desired timeframe, what can you do?

It's an important series, because there are so many people suffering.  So many people that are hurting and have been hurting for a while.  Fighting through cancer treatments or facing an untreatable disease.  Parents praying for their kid's safety and protection, but unable to help them through addiction, or other difficult life choices.  A community reeling from the sudden loss of a beloved member.

There are times when we do see miraculous healing.  There are times when it all can make sense.

But there are also those struggles where we never know the answer.  We never see healing.  We never understand.

Our study focused on Paul's thorn in the flesh, the weakness he struggled with and prayed to have removed repeatedly, to no avail.  Paul, seen by many as the paragon of Christian living, struggled through this thorn for his lifetime.  

But Paul came to understand the affect if not the purpose.  Paul recognized that his weaknesses allowed God's strength to shine through.  The cracks in his life allowed God's grace and mercy to pour out.

It's the miracle of a family being able to forgive the killer of one of their members.  It's the patient having joy through a cancer battle, to the end.  It's someone continuing to show up, continuing to believe, continuing to pray, though they may never see healing this side of eternity.

Those are modern miracles.  God shining through in an impossible situation.  Superhuman strength of character, superhuman belief, superhuman joy.

We were given four reminders or affirmations to get through when there seems to be no answer, seems to be no healing.

First, we are reminded that God will heal us entirely, in time.  It may not be until eternity, but it will be healed.  After all, earthly healing is temporary, like the earth itself.  We will still all need eternal and complete healing.  

Second, we are reminded that our pain will be used for a purpose.  That in all things, God works things out for the good.  We may not know the purpose, we may not see it play out, but it will be used for a purpose.  That can be unsatisfactory in the moment.  And we're allowed to struggle with it.  But we can still look for it to be used well.

Third, we are reminded that God longs to sustain us through our suffering.  Paul sums this up from Jesus's words - "My grace is sufficient for thee."  God will see us through whatever comes.  He wants to be beside us, to walk with us, and will never leave us alone.    He knows what suffering is and will be alongside us through it all.

Finally, we experience power when we trust God with our pain.  God's Strength and Our Pain is greater than Our Own Strength and No Pain.  His power is made perfect in our weakness.  We don't like this one, because no one likes pain, not really.  We try to avoid it and minimize or eliminate it.  We should be turning it over.

We should be reminded of these as we struggle with situations and hurts beyond our understanding.  I think we can also look at Paul's thorn as a reminder of our struggle with sin as a new creation.

There is a reminder in Paul's passage, an indication of what purpose our struggles.

In the lead in to verse 7, Paul explains why he has the thorn in this flesh.  "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations" that he has seen.  

Paul is given his thorn to keep him humble.  

Given the volume of the New Testament Paul is attributed as writing and the influence Paul has in spreading the gospel, it becomes easy for us to put him on a high pedestal and could have been easy for Paul to elevate himself there.

Prior to his conversion, Paul was a Pharisee, the cream of the Jewish religious elite.  The ones who set the standard for living in Jewish religious circles.  The ultra-observant.  They observed every jot and tittle of the law.  But sadly, keeping the letter of the law, just not the spirit.  It made them haughty and pious in their observance.  

They lacked humility.

Paul could have easily returned to form.  Especially as his experiences as a leader in the way grew, to include surpassing great revelations.

His thorn, though, kept him from becoming a "Pharisee" again.  It kept him relatable to the ones that he was conversing with and walking alongside.  It allowed him to understand and empathize with the struggles of those around him.

Do we still today have our struggles so we can relate to those around us?  Do we have our struggles with particular sins so that we can support others who are facing the same ones? 

Could the purpose of our thorns be to keep us humble?  And to keep us looking for ways to help others avoid our hurts?

This idea of a thorn can cover so much and has been interpreted in many different ways.  The reminder to us, is that God wants to use us, thorns included, for His purpose.

Let's be open to that.

Praise Team

One thing that I've really enjoyed over the past couple of months is getting opportunities to sing.  As I've written before, the pandemic has been tough on live music.  For months, everything was shut down.  And even as things opened back up, live music has been one of the slower things to come back.  When we first were able to go into our church for worship last August, we were still wearing masks for services and singing through masks.  Most choirs weren't meeting.  

Over the past several months, I've found those new opportunities to sing.  First with the Cummins Diversity choir, as written about before.  And since this August, with the praise team at Connection Pointe.  

I've forgotten how much I missed this.

Especially because the choir and the praise team stretch different muscles.  There are musical differences.  The choir is about matching volume and pitch with others in your range, while balancing with the rest of the choir.  Following the director.  The praise team is about blending with the small group of singers, often with tighter harmony.  About finding the right harmony to bring to the group that is additive.  

There are technical differences.  The choir is accompanied by a piano and generally does not use a microphone.  The praise team has a full band behind it with a click track and handheld microphones.

There's even one more fundamental difference.

The praise team is about throwing yourself unabashedly into worship.  

It's being able to strip away everything else, the rest of the band, the congregation, the lights, everything and just worship.  All of the musicians at Connection Pointe are able to do this very well.  To take pride in rehearsal and in trying to present the best music possible, but at the same time, being able to let that go and just worship.

This cuts across denomination, across the size of the church, and the style of music.  I've sung in church since I was four and have been part of worship teams or choirs since high school.  Sure, some things change.  I know here I have definitely been caught off guard because of the live video feed that is shared on the screens on each side of the worship center.  Nothing like catching a glimpse of yourself when you are not expecting it to make you do a double take.  

But the heart of it consistently remains the same.  

Praise forever to the King of Kings.

Why I Love My Church CPCC 2: Community Garden

From connectionpointe.org

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..."

Matthew 25:35a

I haven't written in this series a lot recently and wanted to pick it up again to write about our new church home, Connection Pointe Christian Church in Brownsburg, Indiana.  The series was started to write on special Sundays and outline reasons I love the church we are attending.  

It can be very easy to focus on the negative in anything we do.  To point out everything we would change, every little problem we have.  Everything that doesn't make us happy.  All too often, we focus on those aspects to the exclusion of all that we have been blessed with.

And please do not misunderstand me, I love a lot of things about Connection Pointe.  I love the staff, I love the intentionality that everything is done with, I love the biblical foundation, I love the people.  The foresight to start an online ministry a year before the pandemic.  Everything listed probably does not get enough recognition.  

But this series will not initially focus on those aspects.  To start this series is going to focus on those really unique, standout things our church does, including a few things that I would love to see other churches do as well.

Today, I learned about Connection Pointe's community garden.  And I think this is an amazingly great idea for any church.  The church campus has the blessing of size and of land, so a portion of the land in the northeast corner has been set aside as a community garden, to grow food to donate to local schools, food banks, and elderly care.  

I've seen the space in the back and thought it was likely for a garden, but never knew its impact until the bumper today.  Such a great opportunity for everyone to serve, whether they have a green thumb or not, by pitching in and literally helping grow the food that can have such a tangible impact on the community.  

Community gardens have existed for ages, and have had their surges in popularity, from the Victory Gardens during the world wars, to the current resurgences helping to offset America's "food deserts."  It's so inspiring to see a church joining in that effort.  To not only provide food, but to provide fresh food.  Fresh fruits and vegetables.  

Such a simple but profound way to demonstrate God's love to a community by meeting such a basic need.  "Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:  to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke,  to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?  Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"  Isaiah 58:6-7.

And it's such a great idea that aligns with the interests and service areas of most churches.  In most rural suburban churches, I guarantee that you can find people with the time and the interest that are already gardening in their spare time, that would be perfect volunteers for such a community effort.

All it takes is someone to take the charge and lead it.

If you are looking for a church home, to find a place to truly connect and dig in deeper, you can find out more about Connection Pointe here.  We have a great online presence and people joining in from across the country, so it is a great way to start a connection to a church.

If you have a church home, I would ask you what you love about your church.  Could you list the things that you feel your church is really strong in?  And are there areas that you recognize you are being called to serve in?

Why I Love My Church CPCC 1 - Yuletide Festival

I recently realized that it has been a while since I wrote an entry in this series and that I had not yet done so for our new church home, Connection Pointe Christian Church, though there has been a lot that is worthy of celebrating.

One thing I love about our new church home is a de facto motto that they have adopted in their ministry.  We do things we've never done before in order to reach people we've never reached before.  And this has manifested in a variety of different ways.  A dedication to online ministry beyond just a simulcast.  An increased community service presence in this trying year through blood drives, meal drives, etc.  And in this Christmas season, it has manifested in a particularly fun way: Yuletide Festival.

The Yuletide Festival is an event occurring every Friday night, Saturday afternoon/evening, and Sunday afternoon/evening in our parking lot.  They bring in a super screen on a flatbed to create a drive in movie theater showing a good rotation of Christmas movies.  On Saturday night and Sunday morning, it includes a drive in worship experience for those that still are not ready to come back in the building for Covid-19 concerns.  There has been an "ice" rink for skating.  And picture opportunities.  With a neat little gift bag for snacks during the experience (including popcorn balls).

It's a partnership with the parks service that simply serves to bring a little joy this holiday season to our community.  Particularly in a year when light has been difficult to find.  When joy might be a little elusive.

It's something different, something new to reach out to people who would never have any other connection to our church.  And if all we have done is brighten their day and blessed them a little, then it's been a success.

And that it gives us an opportunity to tell them about our church and to let them know what we're about.

"A Thrill of Hope" indeed - I hope your church is likewise sharing that thrill this Christmas season.