Pastor Dan - August 2019
How’s the summertime going for you? I hope your summertime “standards and usuals” have occurred, or at least are still on the schedule. It seems that we enter summer with some expectations and anticipations of experiencing a summer routine by participating in reoccurring events that happen just about every summer. There are some events, or occasions which unfold every summer which really makes summer, summer. I look forward to the “standard” monsoons of the southwest. The thunder and lightening and wind and rain are really something to see and experience. So far, this summer, it’s been the “non-soon”. The weather forecasters continue to preach hope with all their radar and high-tech equipment and charts and graphs, but each day is just another hot, muggy and long day with no rain.
We did get one storm to dump rain upon us at Mount Zion. It came during last Saturday’s worship. Jim Meissner had planned to play a song called, “Beyond the Rain”. It’s a song about the clouds building and the rain pouring down and then the aftermath of such a storm. Several ladies in attendance were wondering if it was going to rain and when, if ever. I told them that Jim had planned to sing a song about rain and that we were waiting for that part of the service in which special music is offered to the Lord by a member of members of the congregation for the rain to arrive. The service began and proceeded. We got to the point of the worship service in which “Special Music” was to be offered and sure enough, on the metal roof of the sanctuary, we could hear the rain begin to fall Within a minute, Jim began to offer the song and it turned out to be a beautiful duet between God and Jim as God provided some distant thunder and some moving rain. The ladies clapped as we were all moved in a very special and holy way. (On a side note: By the time Pastor Craig began to preach, the storm was extremely intense and the pounding rain on the roof made it impossible to hear a word he was saying. It was the best sermon he ever offered of which no one got to hear!!) Even though this summer has been the season of the “non-soon”, the Lord will still provide and keep us in the Lord’s grace.
I have some “usuals” which occur during the summer which are not going to happen this summer. I usually get out to the coast and spend some time with God at the beach and in the ocean. I get up to Flagstaff and relax, doing nothing with no schedule of “have-to’s” on my agenda. (I did get up to Flagstaff to spend time with my daughter and her fiancé’ but I had some “assigned reading” and I also had “Brandy, my father-in-law’s dog. Brandy is not really a dog which promotes “relaxing”. But it was good to spend time with family.) I usually get over to Vegas to place some wagers for our family regarding the upcoming NFL season, but this too is not happening. My summer usuals are just not happening this year. I am not disappointed or dejected about this at all. This summer has been filled with Godly activity and the Lord continues to manifest newness in unimaginable ways.
The Lord knows how to care for all of us. We may have some expectations about what lies ahead, and yet, no matter what may unfold, we have been blessed and graced by God’s eternal hand that we may find real hope in God’s ongoing love and care for our lives. Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Dan