| Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street Norwich, Connecticut Phone: 860-889-0369 |
Cal's Pastoral Epistles
"You Can Trust God"
September 25, 2008
I watched the movie For One More Day the other night. It tells the story
of a man who lives with disappointment borne out of the experiences of his
childhood. The movie begins with him at the point of taking his own life.
Then a miracle begins to unfold around him and his mother appears. For the
next hour and half we walk with him through scenes of his life in the same
way we journeyed with Ebeneezer Scrooge in Dicken's classic tale, A
Christmas Carol. We watch his childhood unfold and see all the reasons for
his bitterness.
About three quarters of the way through the movie something happens.
Along with this man, we are forced to think about reality as we know and
experience it. The main character lived his whole life with certain
suppositions and understandings of the way things happened to him. Yet as
things converge in an unexpected tragedy, he begins to gain new insights
into what was really going on. There were things that happened that he
never knew and never suspected. He was protected from the truth by those
who loved him and didn't want to see him hurt.
I'm an emotional type and I sat there with tears in my eyes as I thought of
my own story. My parents were divorced when I was ten years old. As my
world was crumbling, I grew to hate the idea of divorce. I blamed my
mother and my father for not making it work. I became judgmental and
without even realizing it, I held that grudge against my father. Even though
he gave us all he had as a single parent, I always made sure to let him know
how much I had been hurt by the divorce and how I felt he should have
done something about it.
When I was in my early twenties I went to visit my father one day. That's
when my world began to change. You see, he finally figured I was old
enough to hear the truth. He began by telling me about life with my mother.
He told me how much he wanted to stay married and the great lengths that
he went to try to keep the marriage alive. He told me things I never knew.
He shared stories of my mother's alcoholism and the self destructive
patterns she engaged in and how her actions threatened the health and well
being of my brother and me. A whole new picture of my young life began
to emerge that day. I realized that he was sharing the painful truth that I had
been shielded from.
At the end of the movie it dawned on me that very often God does
something very similar with us in times of trouble. Too often we view
calamities as God's doing. Whenever something goes wrong from the
devastation of a hurricane to the tragedy of a terrorist act we ask why God
allowed it to happen. Or sometimes we even ask why God did this to us.
Yet, these questions come up because we don't know everything. The
truth is that God is involved in these terrible events, but not in the way we
think. God is there. He is working to protect us and see us through. He is
the one who picks up the pieces. He is the one who mobilizes an army of
volunteers to reach out in love. He is the one who shields those who make
it. Only when we look at it through the eyes of a mature faith do we begin
to see things more clearly. We look back and see his footprints. In the book
of Hebrews we read, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and
being certain of that which we do not see." In the book of Romans we read
that faith is knowing "that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him."
Praise God. He is the faithful one. Whether we realize it or not, He will
always be there when we need him. He hasn't promised that our lives will
be all sunshine and roses, but He has promised that if we trust him, we will
not be disappointed and some day we will understand.
God bless! See you in Church. Cal
September 25, 2008
I watched the movie For One More Day the other night. It tells the story
of a man who lives with disappointment borne out of the experiences of his
childhood. The movie begins with him at the point of taking his own life.
Then a miracle begins to unfold around him and his mother appears. For the
next hour and half we walk with him through scenes of his life in the same
way we journeyed with Ebeneezer Scrooge in Dicken's classic tale, A
Christmas Carol. We watch his childhood unfold and see all the reasons for
his bitterness.
About three quarters of the way through the movie something happens.
Along with this man, we are forced to think about reality as we know and
experience it. The main character lived his whole life with certain
suppositions and understandings of the way things happened to him. Yet as
things converge in an unexpected tragedy, he begins to gain new insights
into what was really going on. There were things that happened that he
never knew and never suspected. He was protected from the truth by those
who loved him and didn't want to see him hurt.
I'm an emotional type and I sat there with tears in my eyes as I thought of
my own story. My parents were divorced when I was ten years old. As my
world was crumbling, I grew to hate the idea of divorce. I blamed my
mother and my father for not making it work. I became judgmental and
without even realizing it, I held that grudge against my father. Even though
he gave us all he had as a single parent, I always made sure to let him know
how much I had been hurt by the divorce and how I felt he should have
done something about it.
When I was in my early twenties I went to visit my father one day. That's
when my world began to change. You see, he finally figured I was old
enough to hear the truth. He began by telling me about life with my mother.
He told me how much he wanted to stay married and the great lengths that
he went to try to keep the marriage alive. He told me things I never knew.
He shared stories of my mother's alcoholism and the self destructive
patterns she engaged in and how her actions threatened the health and well
being of my brother and me. A whole new picture of my young life began
to emerge that day. I realized that he was sharing the painful truth that I had
been shielded from.
At the end of the movie it dawned on me that very often God does
something very similar with us in times of trouble. Too often we view
calamities as God's doing. Whenever something goes wrong from the
devastation of a hurricane to the tragedy of a terrorist act we ask why God
allowed it to happen. Or sometimes we even ask why God did this to us.
Yet, these questions come up because we don't know everything. The
truth is that God is involved in these terrible events, but not in the way we
think. God is there. He is working to protect us and see us through. He is
the one who picks up the pieces. He is the one who mobilizes an army of
volunteers to reach out in love. He is the one who shields those who make
it. Only when we look at it through the eyes of a mature faith do we begin
to see things more clearly. We look back and see his footprints. In the book
of Hebrews we read, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and
being certain of that which we do not see." In the book of Romans we read
that faith is knowing "that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him."
Praise God. He is the faithful one. Whether we realize it or not, He will
always be there when we need him. He hasn't promised that our lives will
be all sunshine and roses, but He has promised that if we trust him, we will
not be disappointed and some day we will understand.
God bless! See you in Church. Cal
Pastor Cal Lord writes these weekly epistles to
help us see God in every day things.
help us see God in every day things.
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |