Our God of endurance and encouragement
What an awful year it’s been!
We saw programs close, clients relocated and bid farewell to colleagues. It seems like each week we were just waiting for another shoe to drop, and it looks like there’s more rough times on the way, given the latest from our partners at USCIS and HUD. Just as I’m wondering what else might go wrong, here comes John the Baptist yelling at me about vipers and warning me about axes and fires. After all the chaos and pivots and continued planning we’ve endured this year, I want to tell Mr. Baptist to take his camel hair and head to some other river.
But then there’s this: “God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” Well that’s encouraging…
Maybe even begrudgingly I’m looking around, and I guess it’s not been all bad. Despite the challenges, we have been pretty successful this year – there was that couple who finally adopted their baby after waiting for more than four years. And that former client who’s thriving in his own housing who came back to donate a tent just in case someone else needed it. There was that family from Venezuela that launched their own business. All of these success stories seem to be written for my instruction – that I might have hope.
Just when I want to curl up as George Bernard Shaw’s feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances, here comes John the Baptist, camel hair and all, pointing ahead to our God of endurance and encouragement so that in the midst of each and every challenge we will remember every success is another reason for our hope.
Even in the tough times, we produce remarkably good fruit.
Jay Brown is CEO of Commonwealth Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. He likes the Celtics.