Comfort and Joy

I’m a mess, y’all.

You see, I want to be a spiritual giant, known for maturity of faith and unparalleled Biblical insights … but I recognize on a regular basis that I’m just a simple pilgrim making his way through the ups and downs of life.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been praying for my mother. From her hospital room, she’s battling both COVID and flu. That’s no easy path at her age (she wants you to know she’s 64). In just a few days I witnessed a month-long decline in Mom’s physical strength bottom out in a place of absolute can’t-take-another-step exhaustion. It’s been hard to watch.

Of the human suffering which is part and parcel of the Christian experience, A.W. Tozer once wrote: “You will feel and understand the ministry of the night; its power to purify, to detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death and, what is more important to you in the moment, the fear of life.” As you have prayed for Mom and for us, I have sensed the Lord’s love being poured out even in my fears of the night.

My mother reminded me of “that passage about wings like eagles,” so I pulled out Isaiah 40 and read it aloud by her bed. Even George Frideric Handel was drawn to that great text when he composed the Christmas portion of Messiah: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people!” And there are so many beautiful comforts in that chapter. The Incarnation means that Jerusalem, despite her abundance of sins, can celebrate the work of redemption that Christ has come to accomplish on her behalf.

It’s a humbling chapter. You and I, the frail and flawed humans that we are, are like the “withering grass” and the “fading flower.” That’s meant to sting a bit, I imagine. Yet the chapter is also our song of victory in Christ: “the Word of our God will stand forever!”

“The Lord God comes with might!” No one will prevail against Him. While the nations of the earth prove themselves to be nothing but “a drop from a bucket,” our God is coming to shepherd us like “the lambs in His arms.” The Mighty God is also our gentle Shepherd.

Sadly, my flesh is like your flesh: it seeks something worldly for ultimate security. But God loves us so much that He is setting us free from all those empty promises and vain idols … and He is planting us firmly on the only solid Rock.

Is that not the wonder of Christmas? God will use an unknown couple … in an obscure village … through the most unbelievable circumstances mirroring both the depth of human depravity and the miracle of grace … to turn the world upside down. The manger will give way to the cross, and the cross will give way to the empty tomb! And then we discover that our upside down is God’s right-side up. Only Jesus!

You and I are the “weary fainters.” We’re the ones who “fall exhausted.” But right now the living Christ seeks to come underneath us with His wings … to fill us with His strength … to carry us safely across His finish line … and, even while we wait, to surprise us with His unexplainable joy!Watching my sweet mother suffer such debilitating weakness broke my heart. At the same time, friends, my soul whispered: “Comfort, comfort My people.” And I realized all over again that Jesus is more than enough.

So, just in time for Christmas, I bring you tidings of comfort and joy.

Pastor Charles