In recent days, Peter and I have found the services of a new (to us) church on YouTube. We've only watched a few, but I'm finding myself so refreshed by them—beyond anything I've experienced from an English-language church service in years!
As I've pondered why that might be, I've observed a few things about this "new" church:
- It isn't afraid to do old things. To sing old hymns and choruses as well as new, to engage in prayer meetings and benedictions.
- It isn't trying to be glitzy. It trusts that Jesus will shine through, and doesn't distract us from the pure beauty of the gospel with fancy stages, professional singers, technological marvels, or other human contrivances.
- It's comfortable with who it is. It's not trying to be "cool".
- It errs on the side of excellence with simplicity. It doesn't extend itself beyond what it knows it can do well, even if something else would be more sexy.
- It engages its leadership. They rotate through preaching on any given Sunday. It's not just the senior pastor who shares messages.
- It doesn't focus on politics, but on Jesus.
In these COVID times, with so much uncertainty, I've found it refreshing to once more be grounded in things that are familiar. There's a special relaxation in remembering that the simple truth of Jesus is enough.
Today, I read Isaiah 43 in my devotional time. Verses 18-21 say:
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.
The beasts of the field will glorify Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I have given waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My chosen people.
The people whom I formed for Myself
Will declare My praise.
On the surface, these verses seem to fit well with the current trend in North America that wants everything to be new and original.
But it's important not to take verses out of context, as we're prone to do. If we concentrate only on these verses and not the entirety of scripture, we might think that there's no need to memorialize or remember the old ways and teachings.
And yet, the Bible encourages us over and over to anchor our faith on the things that God has done, on the things that have come before [1]. Without such an anchor, especially in such turbulent and uncertain times as these, we are lost at sea, adrift on the whims of our emotions and circumstances.
This leads us to an important question: why is it that God is calling His people in these verses to not ponder the things of the past?
The answer is also in this passage:
"Will you not be aware of it?"
The reason that God is calling His people to forget the things of the past (for a moment) is so that they will be aware of what He's doing now.
If we're always looking in our rearview mirror, we'll miss what's happening just outside our windshield.
The irony is that if we're always looking at our sat nav (the glitzy "new" bells and whistles) we can also miss what's happening right outside our windshield.
So let's take some time today to strip down to the essentials, remove all the distractions we've attached to our faith, and remember why we call ourselves Christ-followers in the first place.
NOTES
[1] The following is a sample set of scriptures that include exhortations to remember and examples of remembering: Psalm 103:2, Romans 6:17-19, Romans 5:8, Psalm 77:11, 1 Chronicles 16:12, Joshua 23:14, 1 Corinthians 11:25, John 14:26, etc.
