Here's Your Sign

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Isaiah 40:27

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. Hebrews 10:35 (NIV)

REFLECTION:
The church I worked at in Columbus, Ohio had the best 'church signs' I have ever seen. (You know the cheesy church marquee signs from countless things on the internet). This church used its marquee to say creative, funny, and intriguing things that made the people driving by think.

One month, their marquee sign said, "God reigns! (All Contrary Evidence Notwithstanding)."

I love it. It is a statement of faith in the face of hardship, war, division, and pain. God still reigns. Period. We know this to be true.

Now, I won't pretend for a second that this feels true to me every moment of my life. Like everyone, I have moments when I doubt; moments when I want to shake my fist at the sky and yell, "if you are real, DO something about this!" I won't pretend that all of you reading this feel rock solid all the time either. We all wonder, in the face of struggle, if God and the love we see on the cross is real.

And yet, it's an interesting thing that we do mentally. We are so used to things going 'well' that we pay more attention to the few things that go poorly, pointing to those as evidence of something larger (the non-existence of God). I am so used to having sufficient housing, enough food, relative good health, and enough money, that when anything goes wrong, I am quick to focus on that. The good things become like the wallpaper; you just don't notice them anymore. But they actually provide the foundation on which my whole life rests.

The beautiful truth is, the blessings of my life are like a solid foundation, provided by God, that even allow me to focus on the things that are not going well. I wouldn't be as worried about the state of the world if I was fighting to find enough food for my family daily. But, since our plates are always full, I have the privilege of focusing on other things.

Today, let's ask for the clarity of vision to SEE and APPRECIATE the things that are going well, rather than giving in to the easy temptation to focus only on the things that are not going well. May we not feel invisible to God, as the first reading above indicates. May we know that we can have sure confidence in God's providing. If we need a "sign" we need look no farther than the empty cross; a symbol of the promise that will never fail us.

And may we say, in the face of all hardship, "God Reigns! (All contrary evidence notwithstanding)."

PRAYER:
Lord, how can we see you in our lives if we rely only on ourselves? Help us to feel your embrace when we feel abandoned and need you the most. Your will be done, Amen.*

*Prayer taken from the Moravian Daily Texts