April 15, 2010

After my challenge on Sunday morning for the congregation to actually read “The Pastor’s Corner”, I now have a sense of pressure to write something that’s worth reading – Oh well, here goes!

I have just come out of a meeting with our Community Needs Network Volunteers.  In the midst of sharing the blessings of praying with and helping people, they also shared a certain heaviness that follows them after 3 hours of serving.

If you remember the sermon from Sunday and “what are the odds of that”, the first point was…Open up your eyes to the poor.

And the second was…Open up your heart to the poor.

Our Volunteers have opened their eyes, and now their hearts are being affected.  They are beginning to care for these people.  They think about them after they have gone.  They carry the weightiness of a family with multiple problems, and the help they provide is small in comparison.

The third point of the sermon was…Get to know the people who are hurting.

There is not necessarily great joy in knowing the hardships of others.  The downside of getting to know them is that we feel their pain.  This team of volunteers has been doing that since October, 2009.  It doesn’t get any easier!  The enemy would want us to quit.  God wants us to continue to care in spite of the pain.

Are your eyes open?  Is your heart softening?  Are you making some new friends?  God will be pleased.  Keep it up, even if it hurts.

Blessings,

Pastor Rick