September 18

Beloved of Good Shepherd Church,

Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!

“If they are alive there is hope.” My old friend, Chuck Smith, used to say that all the time about men and women struggling with life’s hardships. No matter what’s happening to you, if you've got breath in your lungs and your heart is beating, then you’re on the edge of a breakthrough. If you’re going through a hard time but you’re still alive, then at any moment you and God might partner up and turn it around. Likewise if you’re alive then there is still time for God’s love to get through to you and break you free from whatever is holding you down.

I have been taking that stance lately with all the so-called adversaries in the Gospel stories. Those men who want to stone the woman they supposedly caught in adultery? They walked away from Jesus on the edge of a breakthrough. The rich young ruler who couldn’t let go of his possessions in order to follow Jesus? He walked away on the edge of a breakthrough. The synagogue leader who wanted Jesus to follow the rules on the Sabbath? He finished his encounter with Jesus and found himself on the edge of a breakthrough. Peter? He was darn near always on the edge of a breakthrough! My wager is that all those people broke through eventually. They broke out of the chains of circumstance that were binding them and came to live in the fullness of God’s love. Maybe I am misguided and naive, but that’s what I believe. I am a prisoner of hope!

We’re all living on the edge of the next breakthrough into a more spacious, grace-soaked season. Next time you’re feeling down say to God, “Well, this is not going well I must be on the edge of my next breakthrough!”  Next time you see someone doing or saying something terrible instead of groaning in lament, brightly say to yourself, “Well, there he goes again, he’s inching up to the edge of his next breakthrough.” Then you’ll start to see bad actors in our midst as beloved broken people who may get better any day now. The world needs people with a positive outlook and a hopeful perspective. Why not us? 

If you’re alive there’s hope!

Remember this always - God loves you, and I love you too!

Love is all, 

Hendree+