Today’s message was written by Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Today I want to suggest an exciting idea – I want you to try giving yourself away.

I once knew a man who suffered a nervous breakdown, during which he sat for months in gloom and mental darkness. One day I suggested he try to turn off his dark, depressing thoughts by practicing thanksgiving. I said, “Start thinking of people who greatly helped you in your life.”

So, he wrote an elderly school teacher, a Miss Elaine Smith, who had been a positive influence on his life. A reply came, written in the shaky handwriting of an aged lady. “Dear Willy,” she wrote, “When I read your letter I was blinded by tears, for I remember you as a boy, and as I think of you now I see you as a little fellow in my class. You have warmed my old heart. I taught school for fifty years. Yours is the first letter of thanks I ever received from a student, and I shall cherish it until I die.”

Friend of Dial Hope, writing a letter of thanks – a project like that – may involve taking a little time – but it’s an opportunity to give a little of yourself, and really that’s the best you can give. Strangely, when you give yourself, you find yourself.

Let us pray: God of hope, we come to you when our hope is vanquished, and our faith is small. We come to you when the promise of the “good life” has been found lacking, when clothes and cuisine, cars, and cappuccinos become insufficient nourishment for the hunger of the human spirit. We come to you because we have nowhere else to go. O God, save us from ourselves; from self-indulgence, and self-idolization. Heal us from the sickness of the body but even more from the sickness of the soul. May we get caught up in the current of your compassion, the flood of your forgiveness and so lose ourselves in the wide ocean of your love. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

Yesterday we talked about Jonah. Well, there is another passage in Jonah that challenges me. Jonah was called to preach to the people of Nineveh. They were a particularly brutal, bloodthirsty lot. But, when they heard Jonah preach, they repented.  In chapter 3, we read, “When God saw what they did… God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.”

God changed his mind.

Whenever we think we’ve got God nailed down and figured out – whenever we think we know who God is going to condemn or who God is going to save – we need to remember this passage.  God is a God of surprises and a God of Grace.

I’ve often heard it said that when I get to heaven I’ll be surprised at who I see there. If I’m honest with myself, I have to imagine there will be some there who will also be surprised to see me!

Let us pray:  O God, you are a God of second chances. And for that, we praise you. We praise you for your mercy, your forgiveness, and for your amazing grace. Help us today to forgive as we have been forgiven. If there are broken relationships in our life, give us the courage and strength to work for reconciliation when possible.  In all things, help us to trust you, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s message was written by my friend Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

I saw a cartoon not long ago that caught my attention. A woman is standing in front of a desk at the Missing Persons Bureau. A police officer is sitting at the desk, pencil in hand, taking down the information the woman has obviously come in to give him. This conversation takes place:

“My husband is a missing person.”
“How long has your husband been missing?”
“Oh, about twenty years.”
“Twenty years? Why are you just now reporting it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just got lonely.”

Unfortunately, most people do not have to wait twenty years to feel the pain of loneliness. Loneliness is, without question, one of the great problems of our time. Some people call it Public Enemy Number One. It’s really quite ironic when you stop to think about it because the fact is that you and I come into social contact with more people in one year than our great-grandparents did in a whole lifetime. And yet, people today are lonelier than ever before…. and the pain is excruciating. There is the loneliness of separation from those we love, loneliness of feeling unneeded, loneliness of responsibility, and spiritual loneliness that comes into our hearts when we drift away from God!

Drugs (including overconsumption of alcohol), self-pity, running away, and suicide are negative and destructive responses that should be avoided like the plague. But, there are at least two constructive ways to deal with loneliness. First, get involved in a church where you will be accepted, valued, welcomed, loved, supported, and encouraged. Second, remember that you are never really alone. God is always with us. That is the good news of our faith, isn’t it? “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still” (Psalm 40).

Friend of Dial Hope, when we feel the pain and stress of loneliness, we need to remember that we are not alone – God is with us! Don’t ever forget… God loves you! God loves you! God loves you!

Let us pray: Loving God of china-blue skies and dazzling sunrises, touch our hearts, and make them whole. Fill them with such boundless hope that our minds will burst with gratitude, our mouths will shout with joy, our hands will clap and our feet will dance! We believe, O God, help our unbelief! Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The late George Buttrick, an acclaimed preacher, and professor at Harvard University used to tell an apocryphal story. This story of course did not make its way into the Bible but was nonetheless very poignant. The story goes that one day Jesus came across a bird sitting on the ground in obvious frustration. The bird said that all had been well when it was young and had no heavy wings at its sides. But then these “burdens” had grown. The bird was resentful of having them as a part of his body. Jesus neither condemned nor laughed at the bird, but responded by telling him that what felt like heavy burdens were in fact instruments of a new kind of power. He then proceeded to show the bird how to use those wings to fly. And so it goes that what had once seemed like a burden, ultimately allowed the bird to soar the heights of the sky.

This story just reminds me that our burdens, past failures, and mistakes can actually become points of strength.

Many of the folks I know who have the deepest faith have also been the same folks who have endured some of life’s difficult challenges and even tragedies.

As Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world breaks everyone, but many are strong in the broken places.”

May you become strong in the broken places, and may you use that strength to reach out and help the next person through.

Let us pray:   God of Grace, we thank you that you are with us – even in our pain. Forgive the sins we carry and heal the wounds of our souls. Strengthen us so that we can be an instrument of your grace for others; through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Paul Harvey tells an amusing story about some airline baggage handlers who retrieved an animal carrier from the luggage bay of an airliner. As they removed the carrier, they made a gruesome discovery. The dog inside was dead! The baggage handlers panicked. They thought that there might be lawsuits and that they might even lose their jobs. They told the woman passenger that her dog had been sent to another destination by mistake, and they promised her they would find her dog and have it delivered to her. With that assurance, the woman went home.

The baggage handlers then buried the woman’s pet. Afterward, they set out to find another dog to replace the animal that had died. Finally, they found a dog that was a dead ringer for this woman’s pet. They put the substitute dog in the animal carrier and sent it to the woman’s address.—–The woman took one look at the dog and exclaimed, “That’s not my dog! My dog is dead,” she told them. “I was bringing it home for burial.” (Paul Harvey’s FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, p. 67).

My dad used to say, “Honesty is always the best policy.” It’s true, isn’t it? Think about all the trouble we are saved, simply telling the truth.

Let us pray: We pray today for integrity, O God. Help us to live in tune with what we believe, to speak the truth in love, and in doing so, may we experience your peace deep within. We pray today for those who need your guidance, your leading, and your love. Meet us wherever we happen to be this day. Amen.