"…my remembrance of you…"

One of the disadvantages of  preaching each Sunday is that I rarely have an opportunity to sit and listen to someone open up God's word, read it, and then proclaim its truth.  I need to hear God's word for myself as much as the people I preach to need to hear it, but those kinds of opportunities to feed on God's word don’t come my way as often as I would like.  So I was kind of excited this evening when I saw a link on Facebook to a sermon a friend of mine preached this morning.  Actually, I was doubly excited.  First, because I have never heard this friend preach, and secondly, because he was using a text that I preached myself last year.  A familiar voice, digging into the soil of a familiar text.  I clicked on the link.

His text was Philippians 1:3-5, where in verse three Paul writes:

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,"

My friend explained how Paul was very fond of the congregation in Philippi that he was writing to.  He knew them well, as he had got them started when he first visited that city.  And so it might seem natural that Paul would be fond of them. And then my friend brought out the fact that Paul thanked God as he remembered the Philippians, even though Paul knew that there were serious problems in their congregation. He knew them well as sisters and brothers in Christ, but he likely also knew that, like people anywhere, some could be hard to get along with, and that in the eyes of others he may have always appeared as an adversary.

And then my friend made things a bit more personal, saying that we all know people for whom we always have good thoughts whenever they cross our minds. In those cases it would be easy to thank God as we remember them. But going a step farther, he asked to think about some of the people who were difficult in our lives. Could we grow as Christians and develop an attitude such as Paul's, being thankful whenever we remembered them?  The people whom we might not be all that excited about when we saw them? The people that sometimes we wish had gone to the store at different time than we did? That was when his sermon got more personal for me.

People who have heard me talk for any period of time, or read some of what I have written, about life on the reservation will have heard about how devastating alcohol and other drugs are here.  After nearly five years in Dulce I can’t think of a single family I know of that hasn’t been affected by the downstream consequences of substance abuse. 

As Robin and I prayed together this evening we prayed by name for a number of people we know who are so often in the midst of the struggle with alcohol. Robin mentioned that the list seems to be getting longer, and she is probably right. Being a pastor gives me insight to other people whom she isn't aware of, people that I also feel drawn to pray for on my own.  Sometimes it seems as if they are living inside a tornado, violently thrown here and there but unable to escape the force that holds them inside.  Sometimes they try hard to break free, but I can see that it is an incredibly hard fight.  Occasionally there is real and lasting freedom from addiction, and I praise God for that, because I know each time his hand as been at work.

Getting back to Paul and the Philippians, I am glad that God has given me an attitude where I am glad to see those people I know who struggle with addiction here in Dulce. Personal contact with them is erratic and unpredictable, but when it comes there is often not only the opportunity to speak a word of encouragement but to also join with them in prayer.

I thank God for the opportunity to remember those here who are in bondage to addiction, and as I remember them then to also lift them to his care, asking that one day, perhaps even today, would be the day he brings them to freedom.

 

Note

I used a stock picture of what would seem to be among the most popular brands on the reservation, judging from the number of bottles I find scattered along the road. Its effects on the reservation are not nearly in keeping with the sophisticated image of the industry's advertising.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.