Dear Edgeboro Family & Friends,

September is finally upon us, which in a non-pandemic year usually means that we settle into a new fall rhythm of events and routines at school, work, home, and church. Thankfully at this time, that is still happening, but one of the frustrating things about this current chapter of the pandemic is that when it comes to planning events, it seems like we are back in a stage of having to make plans very tentatively. My office calendar is once again full of question marks and I’m more grateful than usual that I write on it with far-from-permanent (wet-erase) markers. I find myself yearning for the days when I could count on planning in advance.

The Daily Text for September 1^st doesn’t really help to stop that yearning.

“I pray to you, O Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.” (Psalm 69:13)

Jesus said, “If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” (John 16:23)

Receiving definitive answers to my questions? I’d take that in a heartbeat. I’d love to know what to plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d love to know if my calendar will hold true even a month from now. I’d love to provide a newsletter full of church events knowing exactly what details to share. I’d love to just know what to plan for. Unfortunately, that’s not reality. (I know I just wrote all that in the first-person, but I’m hoping you can relate to some extent.)

But here’s the thing if you stop and think about it: when it comes to being people of faith, could we ever truly plan ahead? Can we truly say to God, “You know, I’d love to just know what to plan for,” and expect to get a tidy answer that will fit into our schedules? Of course not. Unexpected things, good and bad, happen all the time. That’s life. We know this from experience. We also know this from scripture.

If you read the scripture which surrounds those Daily Text verses about receiving answers, you’ll see that they come at incredibly uncertain times. In Psalm 69, the psalmist is going through a difficult time and has no idea when it’s going to end. In John 16, Jesus says these words to the disciples on Maundy Thursday just before he is arrested, which brings about one of the most confusing and uncertain times in the lives of the disciples. We have the luxury of knowing the ending to so many stories in scripture, but if we read the Bible as if we were there in the moment, wouldn’t we see that it’s filled with moments that no one on earth could plan for? Could Moses have really planned for what he went through traveling through the wilderness? Could the apostle Paul have known what was coming when he began to plant all those churches when nothing like that existed yet? Could the disciples have planned for what they experienced with Jesus when so many things just happened spontaneously when they encountered people on the street? Scripture is full of moments no one could have possibly prepared for or written on a calendar in advance.

Making these observations isn’t going to solve our problem – it’s still going to be hard to plan things in advance these days, and we still might have to reschedule, rethink, or cancel things – but it can give us a new way to connect with the people in scripture, and I don’t know about you, but in many cases, if I can find a parallel between me and someone that was important enough to be mentioned in the Bible, that in and of itself is enough to give me hope to keep on keeping on. So here’s our connection: Just like in the Bible, as believers in God, we trust and follow God even when there’s no way for us to know what’s coming next.

In unplannable, uncertain, unpredictable, and uncharted times, may we find the hope we need to continue trusting, following, planning for, and working for our Lord – because as people of faith, clearly that’s what we do.

With Hope,

Pastor Dan