Tag: Hope

Don’t Weary, Be Hoping

A devotion for all who are weary, who still strive to love, care and serve as the hands and heart of Jesus; and a message for our YMCA Childcare Services leaders who show up morning and afternoon to build character and a hoping spirit in our young school-age students.

First: thank you.

Thanks for your servant-leadership to our students and their families each morning and afternoon.

To all who invest in the spirit, mind and body of our school-age children and youth: thank you.

The following is a morning devotion written for our YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne Childcare Services Staff to start off their half-day training event.

May it be an encouragement for all who care for and serve children in our schools; even though it is a bleak winter and everyone feels stretched too far – don’t weary, be hoping.

This morning as I read through the Hebrew Scriptures and the prophet Isaiah (40:27:31) – and as I reflected on the challenging situations of our childcare leaders, Bobby McFerrin and his catchy tune got stuck in my head: Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

I wondered what it would be like to mash the two lyrics together: Don’t Weary, Be Hoping.

What do you think?

For me it grounded the chirpy sweet song in the promises of The LORD, the everlasting God, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth – who sees you in your weariness, sees you caring for children, sees you striving to do good, and reminds us: the weary who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

Now that the song is stuck in your head, and as you read slowly through the poetic promise of God, if you were going to be vulnerable for a moment: what’s been making you weary?

And what would it look like for you to trust the Lord with it, to turn the complaint into hopeful expectation?

As one who cares for children, even when you’re weary, the words of Jesus can be a comfort and inspiration, helping you transform that complaint into a hopeful expectation.

And in particular his perspective on the young ones in our midst (the ones who can make us weary and cause much complaining):

Jesus has a unique take on being with children: we ought to become more like them.

Taking Jesus’ instructions to heart, for you: in their best moments, what is it about the children in your care that you want to imitate more?

As leaders we can’t escape from the complaints people make about us, and we’ll always be tempted to complain about others; but: what would we tell kids in our care if they were complaining a little too much?

As leaders, our work is about influence and responsibility, sacrifice and perseverance; but it’s also about love, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness – and it’s this fruit of the Spirit that we can learn from the little children.

When you reflect on the love, joy and peace that Jesus brings to the little children in his care – and that can include you – how might that begin to transform the weariness you carry in your spirit, mind and body?

Thank you for loving, caring and serving the children and youth in your midst, thank you for your leadership and influence, your sacrifices and perseverance – especially in these wearisome times.

Thank you for being there for them, for showing up, for your humility and vulnerability, your listening ear and playful spirit; and may the Lord continually renew your strength, all you who remember: don’t weary, be hoping.

Apply today for YMCA Child Care Services before-after school: www.fwymca.org/jobs

Love Abides: Matt’s Death Day 20 Years Later…

“As you grieve and mourn the deaths in your life, may you learn to abide in love. We may not get to choose our death day, but we do get to choose to abide in love all the days we have left. That’s what I’m choosing to learn to do on Matt’s day.”

[I originally wrote this post in 2014, and have republished it here with some slight adaptions. It’s all still true for me…and may you be encouraged by it, to abide in love – for what marvelous strength it has to reconcile and heal!]

December 30th is Matt’s Day in our home.

He died on this day at age 23 in 2001.

He was killed by a drunk driver speeding down the wrong way on I69 between I469 and the Dupont South exit in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Matt was home on leave from the Army base Fort Bliss in El Paso Texas where he served as a cook.

Matt at Quartermaster graduation at Fort Lee, Virginia (2001)

We think of him almost every time we drive past that spot. Which is often.

Over the many years we’ve done a variety of things on this day to remember him.

Today I wore his old Montreal Canadiens NHL jersey. And listened to Rusted Root, Weezer, Wallflowers, and DMB in his honor.

I also make a point to sit and reflect about life and death, love and forgiveness, meaning and hope.

I’ve not always handled well the tragic death of my little brother Matt. Or Ben, who died in 1994; or my Dad who succumbed to brain cancer in 2012.

Matt and our little brother Ben (1993)

Thoughts of his death can easily fuel morose musings of the meaninglessness of life, even for me as a life-long Christian and pastor.

The writings of Kierkegaard have been an essential friend and guide in the many years since the deaths of Ben and Matt, my Dad, my Uncle Lynn, my cousin Lon, my father in law Jim, and now my brother in law Jamil.

You’d think that death ends the love brothers have for each other.

But St. Paul writes that “love abides.”

What does that mean for those that protest death and grieve the dead?

Kierkegaard writes words that kindle hope for a love that abides, in this life and the next:

The one who truly loves never falls away from love.

He can never reach the breaking point.

Yet, is it always possible to prevent a break in a relationship between two persons, especially when the other has given up?

One would certainly not think so. Is not one of the two enough to break the relationship?

In a certain sense it is so.

But if the lover is determined to not fall away from love, he can prevent the break, he can perform this miracle; for if he perseveres, a total break can never really come to be.

By abiding, the one who loves transcends the power of the past.

He transforms the break into a possible new relationship, a future possibility.

The lover who abides belongs to the future, to the eternal.

From the angle of the future, the break is not really a break, but rather a possibility.

But the powers of the eternal are needed for this.

The lover must abide in love, otherwise the heartache of the past still has the power to keep alive the break.

from Works Of Love, by Kierkegaard

It is too easy to let hate and bitterness rule my heart in response to the senseless death of my brother.

It’s been hard work to make sense of his tragedy and let love reign over it.

There were regrets I had about our relationship.

I wanted to be a better big brother.

I should have been there for him more. More present and interested in him.

I was busy launching my own life, getting married, finishing up school, starting a church.

I was there for some of his big moments. But not for any of the little ones.

It’s been difficult to figure out what kind of future I can have with my dead brother when the years preceding his death were seeds for regret after his funeral.

Again, Kierkegaard helpfully writes:

The whole thing depends upon how the relationship is regarded, and the lover – he abides.

Can anyone determine how long a silence must be in order to say, now there is no more conversation?

Put the past out of the way; drown it in the forgiveness of the eternal by abiding in love.

Then the end is the beginning and there is no break!

But the one who loves abides. “I will abide,” he says. “Therefore we are still on the path of life together.”

And is this not so? What marvelous strength love has!

The most powerful word that has ever been said, God’s creative word, is: “Be.”

But the most powerful word any human being has ever said is, “I abide.”

Reconciled to himself and to his conscience, the one who loves goes without defense into the most dangerous battle.

He only says: “I abide.” But he will conquer, conquer by his abiding.

There is no misunderstanding that cannot be conquered by his abiding, no hate that can ultimately hold up to his abiding – in eternity if not sooner.

If time cannot, at least the eternal shall wrench away the other’s hate.

Yes, the eternal will open his eyes for love.

In this way love never fails – it abides.

from Works Of Love, by Kierkegaard

May these Christ-centered words of Kierkegaard impart a fresh perspective on the breaches of love in your life.

As you grieve and mourn the deaths in your life, may you learn to abide in love, in imitation of Jesus.

Death will come for us all.

We may not get to choose our death day, but we do get to choose to abide in love all the days we have left.

That’s what I’m choosing to learn to do on Matt’s day.

Love abides.

Matt, 2000

[I originally wrote this post in 2014, and have republished it here with some slight adaptions. It’s all still true for me…and may you be encouraged to abide in love – for what marvelous strength it has to reconcile and heal!]

Day 9 :: Living Stone of HOPE

Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS

How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?

Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.

From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.

by Norris Lineweaver, Board Secretary with Friends of the Jerusalem International YMCA

Over an early morning cup of coffee discussing the hope for peace in The Holy Land with a Palestinian friend from Ramallah, he said: “How can I have hope for peace with God if I do not have a relationship with my brother?”

Later that morning, we joined together in a worship service in the Oratory Chapel of the Jerusalem International YMCA, a landmark near the Old City, known as a ‘sermon in stone’.

On a wall at that Y near the altar composed of twelve stones, are sculpted bas-reliefs that tell the story of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, from the Book of Genesis. 

It is one of the most remarkable stories about hope and restorative justice in the Bible.

This sacred story shows just how difficult reconciliation is.

It involves devastation, it comes with sacrifice, great struggle, even injury; and requires hope and trust in God.

Through striving to achieve reconciliation with his brother Esau, Jacob saw the face of God.

He named the place of his struggle and hope “Peniel” – which means “face of God”.

At noon my Palestinian friend and I traveled north through the Jordan Valley of lush green fields to end the day’s journey in Tiberius at the beautiful YMCA Peniel by Galilee Retreat Center.

From the shoreline of Galilee at Peniel one can see Mount Beatitude and the foothills of Capernaum. 

Visitors come from around the world to rest from their struggles, to be reinvigorated spiritually.

Recently an unexpected fire raged up the Tiberius coast of Galilee severely damaging Peniel, leaving much of the property in ruins.

For many like me who have benefitted from coming “face to face” with God at YMCA Peniel, this devastation caused a loss of hope of it ever being restored to a place of reconciliation and spiritual renewal.

It’s easy to ask God why Peniel was not spared from the fires.

But in the struggle to rebuild the beloved retreat center God has come “face to face” with those in the YMCA working together as living stones in hope and trust: Jews, Muslims, and Palestinian Christians.

What are the fires in your life that have caused you to lose hope?

What are the struggles you experience that could be the place where God wants to meet you “face to face”?

How might you rebuild strained relationships in your life, like Jacob and Esau did, through trust and hope in God?

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.””

Genesis 32.24-30

This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA

Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet.

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