Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Remember When?  Remember when we held our Congregational Meeting on Zoom in 2020?  We weren’t even using Zoom for worship yet, so it was a stretch.  The people being elected into leadership didn’t have a clear picture what they were even being called to do, nor did we have any idea how much longer the pandemic would continue to impact the way we do church.  Here’s the devotional message from that week.  Are things less uncertain now?  Yes and no, but God still holds us fast.

Jeremiah 29:11-14a – For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.  Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me.  (NRSV)

June is normally a big month for plans at Vista La Mesa Christian Church.  We hold our congregational meeting, when we voted on the nominations for our various lay leader positions and the proposed budget that shows how we hope to use our financial resources.  Later in the month, we normally hold our annual Leadership Planning Retreat, and then on the last Sunday, we have an official Service of Installation for everyone who will be serving in a leadership capacity in the ministry year that starts on July first.

This is a weird time to be trying to make plans.  We will still be holding our Congregational Meeting and our Service of Installation, because we still need people in those leadership positions.  But right now, it’s not very clear how those leaders will be called upon to serve.  Our Leadership Retreat didn’t seem timely at all, so it’s been put off until the horizon is less foggy.

But even as we find ourselves a little restless and anxious about the current lack of clarity about what comes next, God is still holding our church tight.  The future God has planned for Vista La Mesa Christian Church is full of hope.  If we lean into that future, we will not come to harm.  In the future God sees, we are calling upon God for guidance.  The plan God has for our church involves prayer and whole-hearted seeking of God’s presence.

“Hope that is seen is not hope,” Paul writes.  “For who hopes for what is seen?”  Though our planning horizon may stay foggy for a while, our inner & collective spiritual horizons are welcoming a new dawn, as we re-commit ourselves to prayer.  Season of uncertainty like this can help us re-learn what it means to rely on God for guidance.  Uncertainty does not have to mean hopelessness for the people of God, because we know who holds our future.