After we took Madilyn up to Sudbury for school, we spent Labour Day
weekend touring around Georgian Bay. On Sunday, I found myself in
Owen Sound, and I went to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church for
worship. During the service, the minister reminded the congregation of
a common call and response: God is good / All the time / All the time /
God is good. He added at the end Look what God has done / Wow!
Sometimes it is easy to look around and say “God is good!” Sometimes
we can get overwhelmed by the difficult, sad, unfair, or otherwise
challenging things happening around us or in the world. But James
reminds us that as much as our circumstances are constantly
changing, God and God’s character doesn’t change. Even more than
that, every good gift that we receive and every good thing that we
experience is by God’s grace and due to God’s generosity.
A dear member of our congregation, Heather Hay, passed away in
August. We spoke frequently on the phone, and I became very familiar
with her voicemail message, which started with: “This is the day that
the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Heather faced her
share of challenges, especially in the past few years, but she never lost
sight of God’s goodness, and she was always able to name at least
one way she had seen God at work that week.
Knowing God is good and recognizing God’s generosity are two keys to
living joyfully as we follow Jesus, whatever our life circumstances. So
we are going to take a few weeks to start off this fall remembering
God’s goodness and God’s call to use the gifts we have received. That
will finish off at Thanksgiving. We will have many things to celebrate,
including our Sunday School teachers and three new
members. I hope to see you soon!
Blessings,
Meg
A Song from my Playlist:
All Good Gifts by Stephen Schwartz is from the musical Godspell. It is an adaptation of an old hymn you can find at 807 in our hymn book! The chorus “all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above” has been playing in my head this week.
Click below to listen.