Hurting People

This title is relevant on a couple of levels today as I've booked off work due to stomach ailments from the quality food we were served at the Hunter Education Camp this past week. Not to say it was bad food, but it was 'camp' food, highly processed stuff that is served to masses of teenaged kids that can process styrofoam. For those of us that have worked on eating very healthy foods over the past couple of years, a week of that stuff wrecks you. I'm hurting. However, on the more grand scale of things, this past week gave me a wonderful opportunity to speak to some of the other volunteer parents that were there. Out of the 10 volunteers, I was able to speak in depth one-on-one with 7 of them. One parent in particular stood out as she shared with me about her community, her family, and more importantly the death of her young girl of cerebral palsy. Often when I speak to those that are hurting in ways I cannot imagine, the most I can do is shed a tear with them, listen carefully, and ask relevant and tender questions to help them work through things. Fortunately this parent had already worked through the painful parts of the loss, and is now reminiscing about the good times and I was able to share in those. Three men were still dealing with divorces, and all of the heartaches that go with that. Another was doing well in his retirement, able to spend quality time with his daughter, but his heart was in Belize where he and his family do mission trips every year or so. He talked at length about what he sees there, and how we in North America have too much, to the point where we can't empathize with the poor in the world until we experience it personally. You could see the pain in his eyes when he talked about the conditions there, and the nuns who had so little did their best to serve all others.

Folks, we live in a world of hurt, and after listening to Dr. John MacArthur's expositional preaching on Mark 13, I'm now convinced that the pre-millenial view of end times is the correct one, and that we'd better get used to conditions in the world getting worse, not better. What can we do in light of this? I think Jesus said it best, "Go and make disciples." Christ is our hope in this hurting world, all others end in further tragedy, loss and hopelessness. Go and give hope, share Christ with someone today.

Our group is holding off on the John Piper study until the fall when life returns to normal for most. We will be gathering weekly to fellowship and have some open theological discussions. Feel free to contact us if you'd like to join us. Our email is hillcountryreformed@gmail.com, or call us at 403-932-0519.