Words of Hope

Yesterday we reflected on Ezekiel’s call story (2:1-5) and on how sometimes God sends prophets into our lives with the message we most need to hear. 

I can’t help but think about my friend Jim Campbell. I always thought of him as the mayor of Westminster Woods. We went to lunch once a month for years. Always had a big smile, a great sense of humor, ever joking – gently poking fun. After lunch, we would go visit people in rehab or skilled nursing, and Jim always wanted to offer the prayer. He was a man of deep faith.

Unless he told you, you’d never know that Jim had buried three of his four children as adults. They died in separate but tragic events over the course of many years. 

I think about Jim, this man had seen the worst of what life can do. And yet… there was a profound faith, a light, and a hope that tragedy could not touch.  Though he never said it out loud, he said it with his life. I think about it all the time: “What are you dealing with Joe, that God can’t handle…that God can’t get you through?”

I wonder who God may have put in your life right now. I wonder what God may be trying to say to you through that person. What would God have you hear? What would God have you do? How would God have you respond?

Let us pray:  Open our hearts, O God, to your prophetic word to us this day. Comfort us where we need comfort. Challenge us where we need challenged. And heal us where we need healing; through Christ our Lord. Amen.