December 2015
Dear Friends,
Do
you feel what I have been feeling lately?
When will the bad news end!?! If it’s not an ISIS execution, it’s a mass
shooting in our own country. On
Facebook, I see images of refugees flooding Europe and ostentatious politicians
talking about building a wall. Racial
tensions in America are high to say the least.
Unfortunately,
bad news doesn’t stay on the headlines. Linda’s
family has had a rough year. The news of
her youngest sister, Laurie’s, advanced cancer hit us hard. Then her mom had another cancer scare from a
spot on her leg. This is her third bout
with this disease. As I write, the
cancer battles are over for now, but in an awkward accident Linda’s mother now broke
both her arms.
Then
I think of the many crises too personal to write about in a public letter like
this. I think you know the kind I am
talking about. Perhaps you are living
one right now. I am talking about those
crises that couple pain with shame. These
are especially painful because they involve real choices and complex levels of
participation by us all. We, along with our
friends and family, are experiencing such crises this year -- and I know many
of you reading this letter can identify.
And
it’s not just the bad news, there is also sad news. We said good-bye to more friends when Josh
and Tonya Good left our city, the third couple with kids the age of ours who
have left the area recently. We miss all three couples dearly.
Doesn’t
it seem like there could be some good news instead? I bravely intended to run a half marathon
this year in honor of my mother. It was
her birthday, 20 years after her passing, but my run turned out to be more of a
hobble. I finished “gloriously” with all
the power walking elderly ladies.
Linda
bravely launched into homeschooling this year.
There is joy in it to be sure, but some days we wonder about our
decision.
Then
there are the thorns and thistles promised in Genesis. For me they come in the form of collapsing
sewer pipes and crumbling chimneys. It
has been a month without heat. Electric
heaters help except that they blow the breakers! Thank God for gracious tenants
on the first floor and basement.
So
what is going on?
And
how can we celebrate the season in the middle of such realities?
I am comforted with this, the One who is
above all of this entered this. He became a refugee in Egypt. His birth prompted a massacre. ISIS is not new, mass killings are not a
rarity in human history. Racism has existed for a long time. Suffering is not uncommon. It is what this
world is made of.
When
the Herschberger family gathered for a bitter-sweet time of dispersing dad’s
things this summer, I found a well-read book on dad’s shelf, The Gospel According to Job. The message is refreshingly real. The miserable comforters still exist
today. They like to tally up who has
been naughty and nice, but there is a cry coming from the ash heap, “I know
that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth” (Job
19:25). In his amazing, pre-religious faith, Job knew
what he needed. He needed a Redeemer. Fortunately,
for us, He has come.
- Lowell (for the Herschbergers)
