Vision For Life

Past experiences or seasons of loss are often heightened during the holiday season. And now, due to the pandemic, we’re all processing loss to some degree. Loss results in grief, and we can either recognize the grief and weight we are carrying or we can attempt to deal with it in some other way. We may look for ways to “check out” from life - mindlessly watching Netflix, online shopping, doing whatever feels easy. We may turn toward addictions - technology, alcohol, drugs, pornography - the list could go on. These seasons of compounded loss can leave many struggling with depression and anxiety.

The Gospel gives us vision for the future and a hope for the future during seasons of difficulty. The Spirit provides us agency and power that is accessible to us even when - especially when - we feel powerless. Lean into the agency provided by the presence of Jesus in the midst of dark season. Engage the living, active Word of God. While “just read your Bible” can be an empty platitude and is not a substitute for counseling and, when needed, medication, Scripture does have the unique power to change our hearts and broaden our perspectives.

God’s never-ending, never-giving-up love and grace are sufficient to sustain you right now. Paul learned to distrust his own strength. Yet God’s grace was always big enough to sustain him. God’s grace was made clear and evident in Paul’s weakness; the same power, presence, and grace is available to us in our weakness.

The pandemic has created a new reality marked by grief and loss. We are collectively grieving the world we once knew - the loss of routine, work, school, relationships, and normalcy.

Many are grieving additional acute losses experienced in the distant or recent past. Acute losses come in many forms - loss of loved ones, loss of life and health, miscarriage, an injustice committed against you - and are compounded and heightened by the holiday season and the pandemic.

The Gospel gives us resources to walk through grief and loss in emotionally and spiritually healthy ways. Jesus Himself desires to be your companion as you walk the long and painful road of bereavement. He is gentle and compassionate and desires to be your most trustworthy and empathetic grief companion.

The holiday season can be stressful. Add in a pandemic, divisive political environment, and fewer daylight hours, and you’ve found a recipe guaranteed to produce stress, anxiety, or despondence. During times of prolonged stress or anxiety our physiological survival response mechanisms work harder, overriding the emotional decision-making centers in our brains that allow us to make healthy relational adaptations. In fact, the emotional and relational regression that occurs during such seasons is likely even worse than you think.

As disciples of Jesus, one of the biggest challenges during a season like this is to navigate it in a distinctly different way. Jesus expects us to experience the pandemic differently. Jesus expects us to experience Advent differently. Jesus expects us to engage in relationship differently. Jesus expects us to persevere.

How does God’s Word give us eyes to see these circumstances or our response to them differently? How does Scripture engage our imaginations so that we can see different options or have a different perspective?

Last fall the pastors at Fellowship Denver encouraged the whole church - kids, students, and adults - to ask, “What does God want to do in and through me? What does God want to do in and through us?” We’ve heard many first-hand accounts of God’s faithful cultivation of the hearts of people in our church family as they open themselves to these questions. 

How does this good work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our church family inform our mission as a church? How does it inform the way in which we go about engaging the rising generation of young people in our church and in our city? What does “engaged orthodoxy” look like for an urban church that desires to missionally, lovingly engage young people with the gospel of Jesus?

The gospel of Jesus can take on different cultural clothing and styles without changing its core nature–a pattern that started in Acts and continues today. On this week's episode, we discuss questions like: How can I know the difference between what is "gospel" and what is "culture?" How does this concept help us when we are wrestling with doubts or questions based on our church upbringing?