From the Congregational Church of Eastford
Hello Eastford!
What a blessing the month of May can be as the weather begins to settle down, as everything gets so strikingly beautiful in our New England landscape, and as activities move outdoors. It is a season of good cheer and hope for many. But to be honest, there are plenty of reasons for people to feel concerned, burdened, anxious, fearful, perhaps angry and just plain sad.
In a recent gathering, I was part of a discussion about what people these days need. Hope was the one-word answer. How about you? Are you hopeful?
I often tell people that fears, worries, and anxieties are the fruit of “unauthorized time travel.” In our minds we hop into a time machine and go off into the future, and we survey a land we imagine. In fact, it is made up — complete fantasy. And what we see in our made-up future is desolation, destruction, catastrophe — it is just awful. Then we get back into the time machine and bring it home to our today. It wakes us up in the middle of the night so we can toss and turn. It preoccupies our days, so we live in anxiety and fear. And it deceives us to make terrible decisions. I have read that some young people today are choosing to not have children because of what they believe about the future.
One of the most profound blessings of our faith is that we can have hope for the future. Two and a half millennia ago God spoke these words through a prophet named Jeremiah —
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Last month, Christians around the world celebrated Easter. They marked two powerful events. The first was when Jesus, God’s perfect Son, died on a cross for the sins of the world. Every single one of us has done things which God measures as “sin” — separating us from Him. What Jesus accomplished was to take away our guilt, shame and the long-term consequences of our sin — death and punishment. And then the second event — Jesus rose from the dead, victorious over death and as proof and a portrait of the future God offers us. We’re talking about immortality and real life in the perfections and beauties of heaven, unbreakable peace, joy and breathtaking love.
As a believer following Jesus, when I step into the time machine in my mind, the future I see is that incredible resurrection life. The Bible describes it as a “living hope.” Hope is about the future, but it is a gift for today. You see, when we have assurance of the future, there is no place for our dark imaginings. How can I despair if I know the story ends in beauty and perfection? How can I have anything but hope — right here and right now?
Our prayer at the Congregational Church of Eastford is that we all might know that hope. It is free for the taking. Want to know more? Let’s talk. Or join us on a Sunday at 10 a.m. in the Eastford School gym. I know that the Lord loves you and wants you to have His hope!
You can check us out at cceastford.org.