Written by Melissa Sharpe

“Not everything is as it appears to be” …

This statement has never seemed more true to me than the society we’re living in right now. I don’t know about you, but I would venture to think for most of us, we are having a hard time processing the news of the world around us. We become so focused on what’s happening in our own little bubbles, we don’t have the head space to process what’s happening to someone else in our own neighbourhood let alone the other side of the world.

The news seems to perpetuate fear to the point where we don’t even feel comfortable around our own families let alone being active in our communities. Our homes which are meant to be our places of refuge have become our prisons. And we can’t control what’s happening to us so we try desperately to control what’s around us. The message we hear every day? Assume nothing so that you don’t get caught unaware or unprepared. How do we lead others when we struggle with our own thoughts and feelings?

But there is one thing that we can assume in this life: and no, it’s not the old saying “death and taxes” though that’s true too, its the secondary definition of the noun assumption as written in Websters Dictionary:

The action of taking on responsibility.

We cannot assume what we think is true just because we think it. We cannot assume something is going to work out the way we want it to just because it may have before. We cannot assume the thoughts or feelings of another person, and we certainly cannot assume someone else will take responsibility for their actions. Have we not all lived through this? Have we not all been affected by the assumptions of another person?

So, if I have learned anything during this time of isolation, it is that not everything is as it appears to be.

The statistics on abuse in North America during the last year are staggering: Children’s Services have been overwhelmed with inquiries and home visits, women’s shelters are overcrowded, homeless shelters, food banks and suicide helplines don’t have enough resources to help. People are crumbling on the inside long before the world can see it on the outside … and sometimes too late because of our assumptions.

Perhaps that’s why we love our bubbles so much. We can shelter and protect ourselves from the pain and problems of the outside world. We find ourselves asking questions that we never thought we’d ask and there never seems to be enough answers let alone any good ones. But a good leader continues to ask hard questions … with hope.

I can’t assume I can do it all on my own for leadership takes on many forms and requires a village around us to hold steadfast to our collective vision.

Maybe that’s where we can find some of the answers we’re looking for. If we can stop assuming “somebody else” will lead and actually be the “somebody else” to help shoulder some of the responsibility of another, then Christ will be there to do the same for us.

Writer & Speaker

Written by Pat Klein

Finally finding a coffee table that fit our condo, I thought it would be nice for my disabled husband and myself to drive into Toronto to get it.

But the day dawned cold and rainy, and he declined going. Later, alone, trusting my GPS, I felt that “somebody” was hovering above me knowing exactly where I was, and gave specific directions. It seemed amazing that signals bouncing into the atmosphere and back, could be so precise.

Often the Holy Spirit is like a GPS! ‘Go here’, ‘Now do this’, ‘No, erase that phrase’, and on and on.

Recently I committed to leading a funeral service on short notice. There were already plenty of commitments in the one day for preparation. “Lord, you’re going to have to guide through these hours.” And He did! It was a pretty amazing twenty-four hours!

Not all days are like that of course. Often, we need to just be faithful without specific impressions at each step.

Remember times you weren’t aware of being led, then suddenly realized HE was actively coordinating the details?

Once I decided to visit a terminally ill man. I called ahead, only to learn he had actually just died. His wife was out for a walk, having left him with a young PSW. God wanted me, a former palliative nurse, to minister there that day. He leads!

Tucked in the early scriptures we find:

With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home.” Exodus 13:15

The Jews were in an impossible situation – slaves in the then mightiest kingdom of the world. Still, they doggedly taught their children they were chosen people, and one day the entire world would be blessed through them. Steadily conditions worsened. Though young Moses learned the promise from his mother Jochebed, for eighty years there’d been no sign it could happen.

Then GOD INVADED! As He had called Abraham, so God called Moses.

We know the story. Showdowns with Pharaoh. Plagues. Passover night. Literally chased out of Egypt! Terror as Pharoah’s army thundered after them.

Then … then … they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground!! The Egyptian army was wiped out!!

From the other side, seeing dead Egyptians along the shore, they could only contemplate the awesome power of their God!

The song rang out:

With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed.
In your might, you guide them to your sacred home.” Exodus 13:15

GOD invades our lives. He leads us, with love and might.

Of course, the story following is far different. Doubts, complaints, betrayals, mistakes and more. Yet God led them and guided them in his unfailing love and might.

So with us.

Divisions, politics, the pandemic, restrictions, grief, burnout, loneliness, financial pressures, needing to find new ways to minister the Gospel, to care, to worship. Someone recently said, “This is the hardest year of our twenty-five years in ministry by far.”

Jochebed could identify with us.

But sing with me:

I’ve learned to know a name I highly treasure.
O how it thrills my spirit through and through!
O precious name, beyond degree or measure,
My heart is stirred whene’er I think of You!

My heart is thrilled whene’er I think of Jesus,
That blessed name which sets the captive free-
The only name through which I find salvation.
No one on earth has meant so much to me.

Oscar C Eliason, copyright 1946, 1993 by Lillenas Publishing Co.

With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home.”

Written by Ruth Johnstone

My balcony door gives me a view of a vacant lot across from which is the parking lot of the Symth Medical Clinic.

It is Wednesday morning, some clouds and a few raindrops falling. A gentleman is wheeling a lady, presumably his wife, to the car. He gets her in the car and proceeds to fold up the wheelchair and place it in the trunk. He is struggling to get the chair to fit properly. He puts it in, takes it out several times. Do I have time to get over there and give him a hand, after all I’m a pro at folding walkers and wheelchairs and fitting them into the trunk of a car. A young man walks right by him and I am yelling from my chair; ‘help the man’. Of course, he doesn’t see him or hear me, he is looking at his phone for whatever reason. Eventually the gentleman is successful.

Out of nowhere there came, with tears, an overwhelming flood of emotions of grief and guilt. I look at my husband’s urn sitting on the shelf. It will soon be five years since his passing. Did I do enough, was I patient, understanding, caring? Did I handle my frustrations with grace? Did I expose anger and resentment? We lie in bed at night and think of all the things we could have done better and we quote,

Whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely … think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

As parents we ask what we could have done better for our children. Where was I when she/he was calling out for help?

What a challenging year for pastors and Christian leaders. How do I best spend my time? How can I justify being at home?

Our loved ones have been imprisoned in Care homes and isolated in their own homes. There’s Richard and Iris, Lennie, Hilda, and the list goes on. I can do more.

Guilt is a natural response to all the good we do or do not do. It reminds us to do better next time. It is anger directed at ourselves. It can be challenging for us to come to an understanding of ourselves. The back-and-forth way that Paul speaks illustrates his struggle about some of his actions. He did things he did not want to do and did not do the things he should.

Guilt can be a reminder, at times, of our messing up but we must never let the tree of good and evil keep us exposed to our misgivings. We must be reminded of God’s amazing grace and unconditional love and move on. We aren’t finished becoming what God has ordained us to be.

Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13,14

Read about her book “When Troubles Fall Like Lemon Drops”

Written by Heidi McLaughlin

Looking at the trouble all around me makes me weary. But an intersection of choice is always in front of me: I can sigh and complain: “It’s going to be another awful hard day. Covid is rampant, I’ve no place to go, there’s not enough money in the bank, I can’t see my family across the border and restaurants are closed again.” OR, I can focus on: “I’m finally going to get a chance to read my favourite book, go for a long walk, call my friend, prepare positive social media posts, make some soup and Facetime my daughter.”

What we focus on determines how we feel.

Nehemiah was a Godly man with a determined purpose of rebuilding the broken walls around Jerusalem. Nehemiah demonstrated excellent leadership by recognizing a problem, praying about it and focusing on putting the expected results in God’s hands. He gathered the Jewish leaders, priests, nobles and officials and he told them about the gracious hand of God to help them rebuild the walls. With fervour and anticipation, they all replied: “Yes, let’s rebuild the wall!”

The enthusiasm was great until the wall was half finished and the focus shifted. Enemies opposed the rebuilding and the workers were surrounded with mocking and jeering.

That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!” “What does this bunch of poor feeble Jews think they’re doing?” Those words shifted the focus and people began to complain, “…there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.”

The focus on the rubble brought trouble and the workers wanted to quit.

That’s what happens to us, isn’t it? When rubble is all we see, and we focus on the negativity, it drains our energy. We want to quit. That’s when we need to overcome our trouble by refocusing on the words we’re listening to. We all need a Nehemiah in our life who gathered the people and reminded them:

… the Lord, who is great and glorious … our God will fight for us!” (Nehemiah 4: 15, 20).

Do you have a Nehemiah?

When the news is bad and rubble is all we can see, we need a Godly leader to help us focus on God’s promises. We need someone to help us re-focus and remind us that our trouble is temporary and we will get through this. We need a Nehemiah for ourselves, but we also need to be a Nehemiah for others. Especially in the middle of Covid whilst rubble is all around us. We need encouragement and words of hope for better days. Looking at the rubble perpetuates trouble. So, I implore all of us to be a Nehemiah and to have your own Nehemiah. Who will that be for you?

Read more about books written by Heidi McLaughlin

Written by Marilyn Cebula

Make no mistake. When you dedicate all of who you are to God, you are exactly who He is looking to work through, without regard to your worldly qualifications or seeming lack thereof.

With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine” Ephesians 3:20.

My life was humming along just fine – loving my involvement in ministry alongside my husband, and five children, as well as my legal assistant job which helped to provide for our family.

Then came a major shift on the job scene when I was asked by the technology department to assist in training for a new firmwide software rollout. That experience sparked something new in me – the excitement of seeing the “light go on” for people struggling to grasp new concepts in a fast-paced environment. And left me with no desire to return to my secretarial job. Near the close of that project, I decided to transition into training on my own and was thrilled to land my first contract.

Fast forward a few weeks, and there I was, on a bus headed downtown with a fancy company laptop resting on the seat beside me. In all my years at the firm, I never needed a laptop – actually, at that time very few of the partners even carried laptops. Sounds impressive, right?

Not so much! As a matter of fact, that day I was on my way to return the fancy laptop after bombing my very first attempt at classroom training. A few short days in, it became painfully obvious – to me and the lady who hired me! – that the particular contract I had taken on was a bad fit. Despite not knowing where my next paycheque would come from, I decided it best to step down while I figured out how to overcome this bumpy start. While I did go on to successfully launch that new career, the experience presented me with an important life lesson.

At some point during that uncomfortable trip, I looked around me at the other people on the bus and wondered if, although no one around me knew my actual circumstances, they could have assumed that I was a typical “professional” -simply because I carried a laptop. Of course, they would have been seriously mistaken.

What about you? Have you ever looked at others, made comparisons and drawn conclusions based on appearances – status, possessions, Facebook posts, you name it, and found yourself lacking – feeling deflated, like you just didn’t “measure up”?
That weakness resides in all of us. Interestingly, God’s Word actually says that He uses our weakness.

God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong … what is viewed as nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:27-28‬‬”.‬‬‬‬‬‬

God’s “modus operandi,” quite literally from the beginning, has been to “make something out of nothing”.
On every page of the Bible, God does it time and time again and He’s still doing it today.
God has a tendency of picking up a nobody.

To become a somebody
In front of everybody
Without asking anybody
TobyMac

It’s true – “things are not as they appear”. They are unimaginably greater when you say “yes” to God and allow Him to do more through you than you could ever ask or think.