High Holy Day Hardships

From the looks of things on "Covenant Blogs," evidently the Holy Day Hardships are upon us. Over the past two decades of ministry, I have observed that the Enemy chooses Holy Week and Advent as his favorite times to target Christ's flock. This phenomenon has become so unmistakeable that I finally thought it deserved a name, so I have called it the "Holy Day Hardships."

And it has settled upon us at Valley Covenant, just as it has settled upon Quest and Christ the King and countless other kingdom outposts. Just in the past 24 hours:

• V. died early this morning, leaving his wife and three kids


• A. has lost 12 more pounds, and now weighs only 100 lbs. We are waiting to hear from the drs. if they will allow her to continue her chemotherapy.


• E, a single mom's little toddler has been diagnosed with a staph infection.


• P., a beloved high school teacher, was taken to the ER with intense stomach pains. At first they thought it was appendicitis; perhaps it is diverticulosis, or c. difficile? He is home awaiting a diagnosis.


• J.'s brother is on his deathbed in California.


• B. is divorcing D, because D. is having an affair and won't end it.

Once again I am reminded of Nouwen's words:

"Our emotional lives move up and down constantly. Sometimes we experience great mood swings from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos. A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings. Mostly we have little control over these changes. It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.

Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us. As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are. We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.

We have feelings, but they do not define us entirely. What we feel is necessary for making us who we are, but doesn't sufficiently contain all that we are.

Christ weeps over Jerusalem, and at Lazarus' tomb, and in the garden. He is the Man of Sorrows, but that is not all that He is. The truth is that He was, and is, God's beloved Son, in whom the Father is well-pleased. We weep with V., A., E., P., J., B and D. but we live this truth: we are Christ's flock, and He is our shepherd. We believe that Christ is the Truth and that He has told the truth:

"You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy...I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."