The President’s Pen

From Pandemic Pain to Bright Blessings

After all we’ve been through in 2020, Carole and I pray that each of you will experience a very hope-filled, happy and healthy New Year in 2021 with the blessing of James 5:1, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” With

each passing year, we are one step closer to the day when we will see Jesus face to face, and reign with Him through the eternal ages.

Consider for a moment, the story in the Old Testament about Elijah; how God spoke to him and told him to go to a specific place by the Brook Cherith not too far from the Jordan River. There, the ravens brought him bread and meat to eat, and the Lord provided him with the cool, refreshing waters of that brook during a time when there was a devastating drought

in the land. You can read the full story as it’s recorded for us in I Kings 17.

Then sometime later, the brook dried up and the ravens vanished into thin air! God could have kept the brook flowing; he could have continued to command the ravens to continue

their flights of mercy. But He didn’t. Why? Simply because God had to make Elijah uncomfortable to get his attention.

Perhaps this is the greatest lesson that we can learn from the plague of this global pandemic. This is how God sometimes has to work in our lives. When we get to a point of comfort, we stay put. We don’t feel a need to change. We get lazy and complacent, or like Jonah, just refuse to go where God wants us to go. It happens in our churches, our homes and in our personal lives.

As strange as it may sound, sometimes God allows pain and discomfort to get our attention!

Just think about it for a moment. If you didn’t experience pain when you cut yourself, you could bleed to death. Or what if you didn’t feel anything when you touched a hot surface. You could experience some very serious burns.

When God uses pain and discomfort to get our attention, we have a choice. We can get angry

and bitter and rigid and blame God for our troubles, or we can choose to be authentic and honest about the hurts in our lives. And from those hurts, He helps us learn some valuable lessons, and gain opportunities to help others who are struggling with the same pain we’ve experienced. God the Father graciously and lovingly let Jesus leave the comfort of Heaven to come to this earth. He came to suffer, to experience the pain and hurt so that we ultimately can have an eternal life with Him.

As we have stepped into this New Year, I challenge you to give your pain and discomfort to Christ, and let Him use it to be a blessing to every life you touch.

Your servant leader for the Lord,

— Leslie D. Louis