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Seventeen years ago this week, Germany was re-united, ending 45 years of post-World-War-II division. Some of you knew a time before that division took place. Some of you were there as it was happening.
For me, Germany was always divided, just as the “Iron Curtain” divided the rest of Europe. By the time I became aware of the political geography of Europe, the Cold War had led the reinforcement of the walls and divisions that separated east and west. A divided Europe had been divided my whole life and there seemed to be no end to the animosity and hostility that undergirded that division. As an adult, my fear of Al Qaeda has never quite equaled my childhood fear of a Soviet invasion. As a young person, I could not easily imagine the world being any different than it was. Then one day, I turned on the television and saw the people of Germany breaking down the Berlin wall with hammers, picks and most anything else they could get their hands on. The world does change — even when one cannot imagine it easily doing so.
Today we are not at war with Germany or Japan. Now we buy cars from them. Today, the Soviet Union is history. Now there is Russia. If they ever figure out how to make something, I am sure we will buy from them. Next month, Andy Brockbank will be in our church. He ministers to gypsy people in Romania, a country that used to be behind the Iron Curtain. The world does change. When it does, things that did not seem possible before come into being.
When I look at events going on in the world, I am thankful that change is possible. When I review situations far away and close at home, I am grateful that change is possible. When I take account of the threats to our safety and security, I cannot express my gratitude for the reality that change is not merely possible, but that change does happen. What seems unlikely, unthinkable, and impossible can happen.
When I look at my own walk with the Lord, I am equally grateful. I am thankful for all the ways that God has been with me, watching, guiding, protecting, saving, and time and time again, forgiving me. As thankful as I am for what God has done in my life, I am even more thankful for what God has yet to do in my life. That is what makes a living relationship alive. There is something more to it than we have already experienced.
Just as change is possible in world situations, so too it is possible and even necessary for our own spiritual maturation. We need not let the fears of spiritual infancy dictate the directions our journeys of faith will take. Yet, if we do not intentionally seek to grow deeper and more intimate in our relationship with God, that is exactly what could happen.
A growing, living relationship with God begins in prayer. It is nurtured and sustained by prayer. To know God is to pray. Without prayer, the impact of all the changes that invariable come about in our lives will serve to shape who we become. We will become the product of our experiences. With prayer, the events, the situations, the changes still come, yet they come to a life that is rooted, grounded, and wrapped around the very source of all life. As such, whatever comes is filtered through the loving grace of God’s merciful eyes and cushioned by the protective embrace of God’s compassionate arms. In prayer, we are still shaped by the events that touch our lives, but we are not alone. In prayer, it becomes possible for the One that we are with, and who is with us, to give direction to our lives and meaning to life’s events.
In prayer, we find the wholeness and the hope that God intends for us.
Joy and peace,
Ed
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