"Learning to Ride Out the Storm"

At the community of faith I serve, we are beginning a new message series based on the Book of Job titled, “Learning to Ride Out the Storm.”  Whenever I ask for ideas for meaningful sermon topics, the question inevitably arises about the “bad stuff” that happens to us.  Questions of evil and of suffering are challenging and ever present in our lives.  We all have struggles and “storms” in our lives, so the question I would pose for us to consider is, “How can we learn to ride out the storms?”  We cannot and must not ignore the storms, or try to avoid struggle.  It is part of the very fabric of our human existence.  How will we endure and even thrive in the midst of storms?  I think the following quotation from Theodore Roosevelt might give us some insight:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I am convinced that in order to survive and even thrive in the midst of the storms of life we must spend ourselves “daring greatly.”  What would it mean to risk entering fully into those hard places, and realize that we are never alone?  At its best, being church means that we help each other to become souls who strive valiantly and are willing to enter into the storms of life together.  Any community of faith I serve as pastor must KNOW that we don't “play church” by merely attending meetings or absentmindedly going to church on Sundays.  We sincerely strive for vital connections that give life and healing to the world.  What might that look like in your life? If you are in the midst of a storm in your life right now, will you please reach out and risk asking for someone to travel on this journey with you?