Welcome to our 27th online youth group lesson dating back to the middle of March. While we have resumed our in-person Wednesday night sessions from 7-8:15 p.m., we are offering online versions of the lesson from that night for those who aren’t able to attend in person. You can catch up on those lessons here.
Please continue to pray for Sally Sheets, who has finished her six initial pancreatic cancer treatments and will be undergoing testing to see how the cancer has responded and what the next steps may look like.
We continue to pray for Trina Eia and her family as they navigate through the concept of hospice involving her cancer situation, knowing that our God is a God of miracles. Trina’s steadfast faith throughout their ordeal has been incredible and a testament to handling tough situations in a god-focused way.
Michelle’s mom (and Paige, Samantha and Austin’s grandmother) Lucille Rothermel, is currently at the hospital with chest pain and other symptoms. She was admitted on Wednesday evening and we are not sure how long she will be in the hospital.
We continue to ask for prayer for a number of others, including those impacted directly (and indirectly) by COVID. For schools and officials and our greater country’s election process. There is a lot of turmoil right now … we can be thankful to know that there’s a God that has everything in control even when things seem completely out of control.
Contemporary Christian singers have been sidelined for large portions of this year due to COVID, but one positive is that it has allowed them to develop new music that honors God and helps the rest of us handle real-life concerns and issues. Matthew West is one of them, and a song he actually released a little before COVID has been very popular ever since. Listen to the song, absorb the lyrics, and try to pay attention to the message conveyed in the background video of this song, “Truth be Told:”
Powerful, right? How often do we find ourselves falling into this trap — we cover up the pain and brokenness that we are really struggling through to look like we have it all together. We cover our blemishes and insecurities with the make-up of lies and empty promises. For some additional context of what Matthew West was targeting in the song — and how God inspired the lyrics, check out this video look behind the lyrics:
There is something freeing about that brutal honesty with each other … to let our guards down and admit we are broken and not perfect and that the appearance of perfection and “having it all together” that society promotes is a lie that can cripple us and take away the joy God has intended for us. What does the Bible say about our need for honest with others? Consider this verse from Ephesians 4:25 (NIV):
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
The concept ties in well with the Francesca Battistelli song “If We’re Honest” shared earlier in this post — another raw testament to tearing down the walls of society’s untruths and pushing us toward the ultimate prize … a brutally real relationship with God. If we can learn to be honest with the sin-tainted people around us, there should be no limit to our ability to be honest with God.
What does that look like? In the book of Psalms, there are several different types … some of thanksgiving, some of wisdom, some covering smaller genres. However, some of the most powerful are those of lament. Those who honestly ask God why things turned out the way they did, seeking answers and a better understanding of seemingly unanswered prayer. These psalms of lament plead with God to respond and the brutal honesty may seem sacrilegious in a variety of ways, but also illustrate the real, emphatic relationship someone of faith can have with God. Consider these lines from Psalms 44:23-26:
Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
We are brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
Rise up and help us;
rescue us because of your unfailing love.
Similarly, a brand new (just released this week) song from Toby Mac drips of this sort of lament — his focused on how he and greater mankind have fallen short of God’s expectations. Remember that the artist has been through some major trials of his own lately … losing his son unexpectedly and struggling to make sense of it all while dealing with his grief and search for answers on a national stage.
Take a few moments to consider Toby Mac’s deep searching quest for truth by being brutally honest and apologizing to God for not only his transgressions, but those of others via “I’m Sorry (a lament):”
