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

The pain of this world is an opportunity for us to be an instrument of God's redemptive healing. Or said another way, we have the opportunity to be an ambassador for Christ amid someone else's pain. 

Dr. James Stewart, the brilliant professor of the New Testament of Edinburgh, Scotland once made a hospital call. He went to the cancer ward of the hospital and as he walked in, he noticed the nurses and the doctors were all frazzled. Many of the interns had just had it. People had been dying, there was pain, there was suffering. And Dr. Stewart was invited to go to a meeting of the nurses and doctors. They called him because they wanted to ask for his pastoral wisdom. In this meeting, there were doctors, nurses, and technicians who were groping for answers. And they asked Dr. Stewart - "Why did God allow a 31-year-old woman, mother of three to die of cancer?" "Why did God allow a teenage boy to die of leukemia?" "Why is it, Dr. Stewart? Why does God allow a little child to die at childbirth because a mother could not function because she had cancer?" "Why, why, why Dr. Stewart?" "Why does God do that?" "And Dr. Stewart what is God's answer?" "What do we tell these people?" "Dr. Stewart, what is the answer?" 

In four words Dr. Stewart gave an answer that thundered down the corridors of the hospital when he whispered to all those doctors and nurses hanging on his every word "YOU ARE GOD'S ANSWER. God has put you in this hospital right now today, for this moment so you might care for one of these children or one of these moms or one of these dads or one of these people waiting in the waiting room. God has given you arms and legs. He has given you mouths, ears, eyes, and touch. And a mind to think creatively in which to care. YOU ARE GOD’S ANSWER." 

What is the answer to the homeless in Sarasota, in St. Louis, in Chicago? What is the answer to the pain and the suffering and the loss? What is the answer? We are God's answer. For God has strategically placed us in hospitals, in apartments, in condos, on the street, in retirement centers, in classrooms, in the church, in church meetings, in the store, in the office meeting, to be creative listeners, to bring redemptive healing to the people around us. Don't ever underestimate the difference your touch, your card, your smile, your note, your call, your fax, your email, your look, your listening ear can mean in the life of someone who is hurting, who is experiencing pain. 

Let us pray: Awesome God, bless us today so that we may be a blessing to others. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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Years ago, at a Wednesday night Bible study, one of our members told us about her youth group growing up. Her pastor talked often about love. As teenagers, of course, they all assumed he meant romantic love. But he clarified — not romantic love, but agape love, the kind that sacrifices for another person.

Hearing that, the students said, "Well, we all love each other. We do things for each other all the time."

Their pastor replied, "That's easy. You're all lovable. The real challenge of the gospel is to love the unlovable."

To love the unlovable. That's not easy, is it?

A Lutheran minister named Roy Lloyd once interviewed Mother Teresa and asked her, "What's the biggest problem in the world today?" She answered without hesitation: "The biggest problem in the world today is that we draw the circle of our family too small. We need to draw it larger every day."

I think about that often. We are usually quite good at loving the people who are easy to love — the ones who are kind to us, who share our values, who make us feel good about ourselves. That kind of love doesn't ask much of us.

But Jesus was never particularly interested in the easy kind. He said, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them." (Luke 6:32) The gospel asks something harder of us — to widen the circle. To extend grace toward the people who are difficult, who have wronged us, who don't seem to deserve it by any ordinary measure.

That is precisely where grace tends to matter most.

What would it look like for you to love someone unlovable today? What would it mean to draw your circle just a little larger?

Prayer: Loving God, we remember that love is patient and kind, that it is not envious or arrogant or rude, and that love never ends. Thank you for loving us this way — especially in the moments we were hardest to love. Give us the grace to extend that same love to others, and may we find your peace as we do. Amen.

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Years ago, I heard about an author visiting the United States who needed to make a phone call one evening. He found a phone booth — remember those? — but this one was different from the ones back home. It was getting dark, and he was having trouble reading the numbers in the phone book. He noticed a light fixture in the ceiling but couldn't find a way to turn it on.

A man walking by noticed his trouble and called out, "Sir, if you want to turn the light on, all you have to do is shut the door."

To his amazement, when he closed the door, the booth filled with light.

Phone booths are long gone now. So are phone books, for that matter. But the image has stayed with me. So often we feel as though we are in the dark — groping for guidance, for peace, for some sense of direction. We know there is light somewhere. We're just not always sure how to find the switch.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus modeled something worth noticing. Again and again — not only in moments of crisis, but as a regular rhythm — he withdrew from the crowds to pray. Luke tells us, "He would withdraw to deserted places and pray." (Luke 5:16) I have to believe that is where his strength came from to keep going back out into the noise and the need.

There is something in that small, quiet act of closing a door. Shutting out the distractions, the noise, the constant pull of everything clamoring for our attention — and opening our hearts instead.

That is often when we begin to find the light we've been looking for all along.

Prayer: Loving God, we lay our lives before you again today. We bring our hurt, our disappointment, our confusion, and our burdens, and we ask you to shine your healing and guiding light into our lives. Comfort us where we need comfort, challenge us where we need challenge, and fill us again with your strength, hope, and love. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Near the end of his life, Joshua gathered the elders and the people after they had finally settled in the promised land. He said to them: "Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Choose. Make the conscious choice.

People of faith have long recognized that it is God alone who can ultimately save us. Money, power, political agendas, military strength, even theology, relationships, and other people — all temporal, all limited. Our hope has to be bigger than any of that, or our lives become small and skewed.

I think about Joshua as an older man, full of experience and hard-won wisdom. He seemed keenly aware that the god you serve determines the kind of life you live.

I've been reflecting on that this week. What does it actually mean to choose to serve the Lord? Maybe it isn't one dramatic decision. Maybe it's the small decisions that add up — the quiet, daily choices that reveal who we are really worshiping. Every day, we get to decide again.

Today, I am going to choose to care — even when every fiber of my being says, why bother, Joe, you won't make a difference.

I am going to choose to do the right thing — or at least think honestly through what the right thing is.

I am going to choose to look for God's presence even in the people who make me angry.

I am going to choose to give generously, even when I'm afraid to.

I am going to choose to notice that even the toughest, most draining moments of life are somehow still alive with the same power that created the stars, the highest mountains, the depths of the ocean — and love.

I am going to choose to follow Jesus, and his way of being, to the best of my ability.

What will you choose today?

Prayer: We remember that Jesus said he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. Help us to choose to keep you at the heart and center of our lives, O God, that abundant life would be ours, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

Friend of Dial Hope, Jesus is the measuring stick for words of love.

He spoke words of tenderness: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

He spoke words of peace: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." (John 14:27)

He spoke words of hope: "In my Father's house are many rooms." (John 14:2)

He spoke words of love: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you are my disciples — if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

This is our calling as well: to speak words that reflect kindness, gentleness, appreciation, and love — because Jesus first loved us.

Prayer: Awesome God, today help us to notice. Help us to care. Help us to be available to any person in need. For in loving others, we love you. In serving others, we serve you. In ministry to others, we find our lives strengthened and enriched. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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