Be the hope
Next week, school starts for the vast majority of our youth. Under normal circumstances, it is a time of anticipation as new grades, new classes, new friends, and new opportunities arise. It is a time of comfort as friends reconnect, familiar rhythms reemerge, and foundational building blocks continue. For parents, it is a time of letting go as their children take their next steps. Or of relief as they get some recovery time from summer and excitement as their kids discover and explore. It is also a time of nervousness, anxiety, and caution as difficulties resurface, and new problems arise. In all, the beginning of the school year is an exercise in controlled chaos!
But not this year!
This year is different…
This year is filled with ever-changing realities, unknown tomorrows, confusion, disappointment, and more hardship than usual.
Parents have become teachers, specialists, and time management experts as they look to balance work with their kids' schooling. Many, who have not been able to return to work (or have had their time or wages reduced), have the added financial stress thrust into the mix as well.
And then there are our teachers, administrators, policymakers, and everyone else involved in trying to create the safest and best way forward for our students and families given our current reality.
Needless to say, as the school year begins, now more than ever, WE NEED HOPE, AND WE NEED EACH OTHER!
In the book of Hebrews, at a time when the early church was beginning to suffer and feel the sting of the world pushing in on them, the author wrote the following:
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Hebrews 10:23-25
While our circumstances are different (in America) than those of the early church, we still hurt and feel the world's weight pushing in on us as we try to navigate a pandemic, political unrest, systemic injustice, mental health, and many other issues…
AND, like the early church, we have the same faithful God who promises to give us the strength to handle whatever we are facing. The Apostle Paul said it best, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." – Philippians 4:12-13
As the school year begins, where is your strength?
How are you holding on to hope?
It is interesting that right after the recipients were pressed to hold on to hope, the writer then challenged them to be there for one another. To encourage, motivate, and be present with each other to move forward in love and good deeds!
Why?
Because God has called us and given us to each other to be the real-life expression of hope in a world that desperately needs it!
This is what we have been given the strength and power to do!
Jesus' last words to His disciples said it all:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." – Acts 1:8
Therefore, as Jesus' witnesses…
How can we spur our students, parents, teachers, para-educators, administrators, and everyone else involved with schooling, toward love and good deeds as the school year begins?
How can we be present with them?
How can we encourage them?
Be creative! Think outside the box! Keep it simple, or not… As living witnesses of the Faithful One, it really doesn't matter as long as hope is encountered, love is experienced, goodness is achieved, and people are encouraged!
In a year where nothing seems to be going according to plan, may we be God's witnesses in amazing ways!
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Justin Porter