Dear Friends,
You know the challenge of the “elevator pitch”—reducing your argument or sales pitch to the duration of an elevator ride—say, 30 seconds. With the Christian faith, we might say, it is to understand and embrace the love of God for all people, and to answer the call to extend that love to others, particularly those who are vulnerable.
We are been overwhelmed by significant tragic news over the past week or two; a heat wave and terrible fires with most of a town destroyed in BC, a collapsed condominium tower in Florida, a political assassination in Haiti, and the ongoing shame of the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of indigenous children from residential schools in Canada. The psalms of lament come to mind in the sorrow we feel with such devastating news.
The two elements of our short expression of our faith are helpful here. There is the assurance of the love of God for all people, and especially the families and loved ones of those suffering from these terrible events. And there is the concern, prayers, and assistance flowing from people of faith who are in a position to help to lift them from their suffering.
May they know through our responses that God is with them.
In Christ,
Revs. Bob and Helen Smith
Photo by Sinikka Halme. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Taken from the Wikimedia Commons.
A version of this message first appeared in the Saturday, July 10, 2021, edition of Tidbits.