Take Care

A couple of years ago, based on a recommendation, I read a gritty crime story, written and set in New York City of the 1970’s by Lawrence Block called The Sins of the Fathers. It is the first in a line of books about a depressed former detective, turned private investigator. There was a passage that struck me then and stayed with me all this time and seems especially fitting now, in our new COVID-19 reality.

“Take care. It seems to me that people have only been saying that phrase on parting for the past few years or so. All of the sudden everyone started saying it, as if the whole country abruptly recognized that ours is a world which demands caution.”

“Take care” – we all say it to friends and acquaintances alike. That phrase is now infused with new meaning today. 

• Taking care to stay home 
• Taking care when you have to go out for food and medicine 
• Taking care if you have to work, especially our healthcare professionals
• Taking care of yourself – your anxiety, fears, and spirit, mind and body
• Taking care of your family

Taking care is our occupation right now. Our world is a world where caution is needed. Where patience is needed. Where faith is needed. Faith, in the Hebrew understanding, is not a conceptual idea (noun), but an act of trust (verb). IN the face of this world, where caution is needed, we can still trust in a God whose grace is sufficient.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

Please know that even in these difficult times of health concerns and social distancing, that God is concerned for you and not distant. God is often found when all our distractions and illusions of control and power are stripped away. Similar to the biblical character Job on the ash heap, we find our true situation that it was always about a God who gives us life, loves us, and longs to be in relationship with us.  So, the best way to “take care” in these trying times is to: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” (Psalm 55:22)

​Please take care by calling upon the God who is the creator, redeemer and sustainer of your life. Taking great care in our great God will help you find great and lasting peace.

Pastor Tim