Uplook - October 12, 2024
It’s a Sunny Saturday in Seattle,
That alone should lift moods I suppose but I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning and a quiet thought came through my mind. It went something like this: “Does what you do even matter?” Now it is with a bit of trepidation that I even share this except for the realization that I am reasonably certain I am not the only one who has heard and even entertained such thoughts. Now first of all…let’s be clear, our value as persons created in God’s image (Imago Dei is the Latin theological term for that), and as such valued immeasurably by the Creator is true and without question. Yet we can sometimes fall prey to the lies of Satan …whispered to us in our own “self-talk” suggesting just the opposite. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians …
“ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” Philippians 4:8–9
Trying to model and practice this scripture, I first declared in my heart (didn’t want my wife to be worried) that such thoughts were not “honest” and not from God. Then the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance a couple of things from over the years which were just the opposite of such a thought. The first was a phone call just a week ago from a couple whom we have known for many years now. I remember the wife when she was just a Sunday school girl and came to our house for help. I was a young minister with a young family and working full time but we did what we could, picking her up for church, and sharing the truth. Later, we helped her buy her first car and find her first job. And even later…she met her husband when visiting us after I had become a pastor. After they were married, they came to visit once and brought with them a recording of a song…which simply said “Thank you”. I was touched that the little things over years had by God’s grace “made a difference”.
Another time, I remember a young person who came to me asking if I remembered talking to them at youth camp. She went on to detail that as an 11 year old we had talked while “sitting on the log outside the chapel” and that she had returned into the chapel and received salvation. Honestly, I did not even remember that conversation as I have had many through the years. It seems that what I may not have deemed as “making a difference” apparently did just that. And recently, while in Chehalis, I had a young man stop me and thank me for a Bible Teaching from last Camp meeting. He said he had been struggling with why God had not yet healed him and that the teaching gave him insight into how he could pray and consecrate the matter to the Lord, and trust His timing. Embarrassingly, I cannot even remember the young man’s name…and yet apparently a few words “made a difference” when used by the Lord.
I don’t know if you sometimes struggle with such “self-talk” about your value or the value of what you do, but I suspect you may. Parents of young children repeating the same activities, discipline, and teaching wonder if it “will make a difference.” Sometimes we wonder if just showing up week after week for worship will “make a difference.” As we age and cannot do what we once could do, we could become discouraged wondering if we still “make a difference.”
Let me encourage you as the Apostle Paul did, to renew the spirit of your mind by thinking on things which are true, pure, beautiful, uplifting, and encouraging. God is "making a difference" through what you do. I am trying to model that for you all just as it has been modeled for me over the years. In fact, I had an email from a brother who is 20 years older than me just this week encouraging me to continue on faithfully. That brother has modeled this for me over the years. May we all by God’s grace continue to “think on these things” and continue to “make a difference.”
God bless you all,
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
That alone should lift moods I suppose but I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning and a quiet thought came through my mind. It went something like this: “Does what you do even matter?” Now it is with a bit of trepidation that I even share this except for the realization that I am reasonably certain I am not the only one who has heard and even entertained such thoughts. Now first of all…let’s be clear, our value as persons created in God’s image (Imago Dei is the Latin theological term for that), and as such valued immeasurably by the Creator is true and without question. Yet we can sometimes fall prey to the lies of Satan …whispered to us in our own “self-talk” suggesting just the opposite. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians …
“ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” Philippians 4:8–9
Trying to model and practice this scripture, I first declared in my heart (didn’t want my wife to be worried) that such thoughts were not “honest” and not from God. Then the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance a couple of things from over the years which were just the opposite of such a thought. The first was a phone call just a week ago from a couple whom we have known for many years now. I remember the wife when she was just a Sunday school girl and came to our house for help. I was a young minister with a young family and working full time but we did what we could, picking her up for church, and sharing the truth. Later, we helped her buy her first car and find her first job. And even later…she met her husband when visiting us after I had become a pastor. After they were married, they came to visit once and brought with them a recording of a song…which simply said “Thank you”. I was touched that the little things over years had by God’s grace “made a difference”.
Another time, I remember a young person who came to me asking if I remembered talking to them at youth camp. She went on to detail that as an 11 year old we had talked while “sitting on the log outside the chapel” and that she had returned into the chapel and received salvation. Honestly, I did not even remember that conversation as I have had many through the years. It seems that what I may not have deemed as “making a difference” apparently did just that. And recently, while in Chehalis, I had a young man stop me and thank me for a Bible Teaching from last Camp meeting. He said he had been struggling with why God had not yet healed him and that the teaching gave him insight into how he could pray and consecrate the matter to the Lord, and trust His timing. Embarrassingly, I cannot even remember the young man’s name…and yet apparently a few words “made a difference” when used by the Lord.
I don’t know if you sometimes struggle with such “self-talk” about your value or the value of what you do, but I suspect you may. Parents of young children repeating the same activities, discipline, and teaching wonder if it “will make a difference.” Sometimes we wonder if just showing up week after week for worship will “make a difference.” As we age and cannot do what we once could do, we could become discouraged wondering if we still “make a difference.”
Let me encourage you as the Apostle Paul did, to renew the spirit of your mind by thinking on things which are true, pure, beautiful, uplifting, and encouraging. God is "making a difference" through what you do. I am trying to model that for you all just as it has been modeled for me over the years. In fact, I had an email from a brother who is 20 years older than me just this week encouraging me to continue on faithfully. That brother has modeled this for me over the years. May we all by God’s grace continue to “think on these things” and continue to “make a difference.”
God bless you all,
BB
Rev. William E. McKibben
Senior Pastor
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