Rekindle and Rejoice

It's a Sunday evening in my part of the world and I am just starting to write a blog after hearing a sermon preached by Mark Hughes, Lead Pastor of Church of the Rock. I pondered much about this whole 'RE-CALIBRATE' topic and how much I wanted to dodge the fact that it was talking to me but I could not. Instead I was consumed by the four bullet points he talked about, which are as below:

1. Re-Joice in the Lord
2. Re-Connect with your relationships
3. Re-Engage in your mission(s)
4. Re-Imagine your future

For many of us living in times of uncertainties, where new restrictions are shoved in our faces every couple of weeks, constant fluctuations on the number of active cases curve, watching Federal & Provincial governments battle each other and health officials giving us mixed cues about cross vaccinations and even which vaccines are fully acceptable. Then there is all the conflict among many civilians, those who are anti-mask vs those who pro-masks, those that are anti-vax vs pro-vax and those that are for the a vaccine passport vs those who are not... the list seems to go on and more than ever it is hard to imagine doing the above four points in a practical sense. 

When I think about these points more, it is all about Re-DOing things but it is way easier said than done. In my case, immigrating to a foreign country and trying to make new connections and friendships has been challenging enough and then COVID happened, it felt impossible. As a result, I  know that I have phased out of being an ambivert and really gotten into an introvert zone, which I might be secretly enjoying. But it is never too late to recalibrate our compass.

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

My main take-away from the sermon was... happiness is a state of mind and the situations around us decides our happiness. But rejoicing is a choice we all have to make irrespective of the circumstances we are in - a conscious choice which needs our intentional effort. Appreciating a deed or a situation or a person is hard but bickering comes more natural to us as human beings. How can we rejoice when everything seems foggy? For me, meditating on the word of God and seeing how God is good all the time throughout scriptures in different people lives and has been in my life helps me to hold onto that steadfast unfailing promise of God's faithfulness. No matter what may come, good or bad, He has overcome the world and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me who will help me to overcome the shackles of this world - be it pandemic, being forgiving, living in harmony, avoiding conflict, creating and renewing friendships and all those list of difficult things we encounter in life.

It is never too late and today is probably a good day to reconnect to our family, friends and renew relationships, re-engage in ministries and calling to advance Lord's Kingdom and be a blessing to people around us. Our future will fall into place because Jesus holds our future and in His eyes a future of hope is most certain. God bless y'all.

-PeeJay