Do
you have any regrets in life? Please
consider this question and read below.
On
Tuesday noon, February 2, St. John member Dave Nufer spoke at the meeting of my
Palmer Kiwanis Club. After a
light-hearted and informational presentation about Ground Hog Day, Dave then gave
heart-felt encouragement to club members, calling on them to cherish the
relationships we have. He pointed out
that COVID has put a strain on relationships.
Dave encouraged the club to hold relationships as valuable and to work
to keep them alive. Dave pointed the
club to our Lord who loves us and created us for relationships.
Jesus
himself was asked, "Of all the commandments,
which is the most important?" Here was Jesus’
response. “29 The most important
one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God,
the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is
this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than
these." (Mark 12:28 b – 31) We do love and serve God by loving others.
You know the
strain this pandemic has caused for families and friends, on businesses and
churches. Many people are staying at
home, following advice they received. I
know some families who did not gather at Easter, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas,
because of disease concerns. Many people
are not going out into groups in public, not going to worship services, or to stores. We do have technology to keep in touch
through phones and computers, but it is not the same as being together in
person. Sadly, I recently heard someone
say, “I can’t wait to give my mom a hug again.”
Then, on Tuesday
night I showed my wife a new belt I had purchased. I pointed out that the old belt I had been
using was frayed and falling apart. Kathy
replied naturally, “Things wear out. It
was time for a new belt.” But, she has
also pointed out how long I keep many of my clothes and other possessions. In fact, I have a jacket and coat that are
over 30 years old. They belonged to my
dad’s first cousin, Robert Stender.
Robert passed away and these items of clothing were given to me by my
cousin’s daughters in 1991 as our family was driving to Alaska. So, these items truly are over 30 years
old. That’s a long time to keep a jacket
or a shirt even though I recently wore them.
It is not that I need these two items of clothing, I have many others
like them. But, not only do I tend to keep
things until they totally wear out, this shirt and jacket are a reminder of Robert. He was family and I cared about him – I still
care about him. I guess I keep this
shirt and this jacket because of that family love.
Following Dave’s
presentation, and this conversation with my wife, I got to thinking how
precious the people in our lives are. I
am not the most demonstrative person when it comes to speaking of love. But, I deeply care for my wife, my children,
and grandchildren. I care about my
family in the rest of the country, whether in Florida, New England, or even
Washington. I have friends I cherish
whom I have met in various ways. And, I truly
cannot remember a member of one of the churches I have attended whom I didn’t
care for in some way.
Now please
consider the question above again. Do
you have any regrets in life? I’ve heard
it said that you only regret the choices you did not take advantage of in
life. Personally, I don’t have those regrets. But, I do know that in my life I have found
ways, often unintentionally, to harm relationships, to cause pain to people I
care about. I’ve hurt family; ask my
brothers and sister, or my wife and children.
I’ve hurt friends. Even though
the job of pastor is to care for the lambs of Jesus, I do regret times I have
hurt the people of God. You see, we love
God by loving others. God made us for
relationships. Other people are precious
gifts of God. My regrets are times that
I have hurt others God put into my life.
God calls us to the
truth of what Dave encouraged. Our most
important relationship is with our Lord.
In addition, it is worth the effort to work on relationships with others. In 2 Corinthians God inspired Paul to write
to a church with whom he had some disagreements, “17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the
new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through
Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling
the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he
has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's
ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on
Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin
for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
God has loved us
in Creation, and called us back to His love by the sacrificial suffering and
death of His Son, Jesus. Because we are
forgiven, we can forgive. Because we are
reconciled to God, we can work toward reconciliation with others. Reconciliation may seem impossible, but is
possible for a follower of Jesus. Thankfully,
I know this truth from personal experience.
Thanks, Dave, for
the reminder of how important other people are in our life. We are made for one another. Thank you, Lord, for healing our relationship
with you in Jesus. Heavenly Father,
please help each of us in our ministry of reconciliation.
A Child of God, Thankful
for the Gift of Other People, for Reconciliation God Works in Jesus,
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. The St. John Promise Keepers are sponsoring the Shane Woods Memorial Ice Fishing Outing on Saturday, February 20. We are looking for people who would like to
help make this a great outing for the kids at St. John. If you can help, or if you have a snow
machine with which you could give rides to children, please contact Eric Wyatt
or Pastor Rockey.
P.P.S. I went fishing again this week.
·
On Friday, January, January 29, went fishing
with Gerry Zellar. We did get a couple
of maybe / small bites this time. But
nothing was caught. Here is A picture. https://photos.app.goo.gl/n21AbyqrndrP9dYj7
·
On Sunday, January 31, I took Gaelen
Swigart fishing on a local lake near our home.
We only had a few bites. But we
did catch this nice 18” rainbow trout.
We returned it to the water for someone else to catch. https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Bd9BDyWhPxXANLw5
P.P.P.S. I urge all of you who receive this e-mail to
make sure you get a Red Letter Challenge devotional book from St. John to use
during the Lenten season with other Christians throughout this penitential
season (time of repentance). You can
pick up a book when you attend worship.
Or, you can stop by St. John to get a book. Or you can even ask to have a book delivered. The books cost St. John $10.00 each, but the
church is trying to get everyone to participate, so only asking $5.00 for each
book. You can donate, or not donate, for
your book as you decide is right. The
idea is that everyone is in God’s Word together.
*****
ABOUT
THIS DEVOTION - I retired at the end of August 2019 from serving as senior
pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer, AK. I was writing a weekly
devotion previously entitled, "Thoughts from the Pastor."
When I retired many asked me to continue writing these devotions. So I have continued writing. However, with life's changes I now call this
weekly devotion "Journeys Through Life as a Child of God."
Since
I am no longer senior pastor at St. John, I felt it right to only send this
message to those who asked to receive it. (Though I am now serving again
part-time at St. John as assistant to the pastor.) Perhaps you also know that I “killed” my
computer on November 7, 2020. In so
doing I lost, for a time at least, all my e-mail contacts. So, I was really goofed up. Many who were receiving this devotion each
week were no longer receiving it. I
tried to rebuild my distribution list, but I am not sure how accurate I have
been.
So, if you stopped receiving these
devotions and wondered why, now you understand.
And, if you are now receiving these devotions and do not wish to receive
them, please let me know, and I’ll gladly remove your name from my distribution
list. My e-mail address is
jonrock53@mtaonline.net.
My prayer is that these devotions
help each of you in your daily walk with our Lord, Jesus.
*******
Jonathan Rockey
Child of God
Husband, Father,
Son, Grandfather
Pastor Emeritus,
St. John Lutheran Church
E-Mail: jonrock53@mtaonline.net
cell phone -
907-841-4066
Home phone -
907-746-5131
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