Hi everyone,
Today was a good day. We had our annual church BBQ which hasn’t happened since before pandemic, and that drew out a fair number of folk. This made worship this morning feel full, as there were more voices in the space that we were used to. Then after an invigorating time of cleaning up, I sat down at my desk to check out the video of worship online only to find out that… the sound didn’t work. AGAIN.
I’m not sure what what happened. I did a sound check shortly before the service and everything was fine. I didn’t touch any settings after that so I was super surprised to see (or hear) that the sound wasn’t recorded for whatever strange reason. I even checked my backup recording to see if it was Youtube problem, and nope… it was all me.
And I’ll admit, it’s pretty frustrating when these things happen. I look back at the days of old when all I had to do on Sundays was pretty much show up and make sure my mic was turned on. I hear many people suggesting that we just forget about our online presence and cut out the live stream altogether, and I’m tempted to just take that advice to make life easier.
But then I’d feel like something is missing. I’d feel like I’m not doing all I can with the gifts we’ve been given to reach out to people who need to hear about Jesus. I’d feel like I’d be ignoring God’s call for our congregation.
The thing is, we aren’t called to be perfect, which is awesome because I totally missed the mark on that one. But we’re called to know that we are forgiven by grace when we mess up, know that our welcome into God’s kingdom isn’t reliant on how well we do things or not, know that regardless of what kinds of mistakes we make or shortcomings we have, we are still dearly loved by God.
This truth allows me to continue to try new things even though they might fail. It helps me keep going even when the going gets tough and frustrating. It strengthens me to do what I feel like I’ve been called to do even when I’d totally rather not.
But I just can’t stop wishing that I was just better at it.
Here are next week’s readings:
Hosea 5:15–6:6
Psalm 50:7-15
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Following God’s call can be risky, but we continue to be called. Hearing God’s voice can be scary, but we are still spoken to. Putting our trust in God might take a lot of faith, but God remains trustworthy and true.
This is what I see in these texts that we get for next week. The path to follow God isn’t easy, but God continues to call people. And we’re not called based on merit, mind you, but on our capacity of faith and acceptance of grace. So much like in all my live stream mistakes, we aren’t called to be perfect, but called to know that we are loved.
And it’s in our being loved, accepted, and welcomed into God’s kingdom that strengthens and empowers us to continue to walk this walk. It isn’t easy, but we aren’t alone in it. We have the support of community, the leading and guiding of the Spirit, and of course the forgiveness of Christ. For this, I am thankful.
May we be faithful to God’s call, and look ahead to what is to come with courage and strength, knowing that we are loved no matter how much we might think we aren’t.
Thanks be to God! Have a great week, everyone!
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash