Seeing God In The Mess

Yesterday was one of the top five hardest days in my ministry. No lie. I can only think of a couple that were much more difficult.

Our LifePoint family has been made aware of the difficult financial situation we are in as a church, and the potential of layoffs for staff. We got to that point over the weekend, and I had to deliver the bad news to both the individuals that were being laid off and to the staff team as a whole. As a pastor, called by God to love and care for the flock, being a part of that was not easy, not fun and not without real pain on my part. I love to share good news (and The Good News), but this was bad news. Hard news. News that was going to hurt when it landed.

But God did what He always does and what I too often forget that He will do: He showed up in the middle of the mess and made Himself known. All the folks who were laid off were amazingly upbeat about it, and each one was willing to offer whatever time they would have in the future to volunteer in ministry. Instead of hard feelings and running away from the pain of losing a job, they were understanding of the situation, and even encouraging in the midst of this. Honestly, I was touched deeply, humbled and blessed to have the privilege of working with such high character people.

Difficult times are what God uses to reveal our character, and the depth of maturity exhibited by these folks was very evident. I've been privileged for much of my career to work with high character, high capacity people, but this was a special moment of getting to see the bedrock of people's character revealed, and I'm just in awe of God's handiwork in their lives.

Once again, when I'm trying to look at what is happening and what might happen from it, God is already there in the middle of it all, bringing peace, pointing a way forward, and loving everyone through the mess. A friend told me recently not to run from pruning seasons in my life. While there is no escaping the pruning God is doing in this season, I also sense there are deep lessons to come in my life and in the life of our LifePoint family that come with this season. Right now, the main lesson is: God is with us in this. He doesn't abandon us when the going gets tough. He's walking through this with us, and all the work He's been doing in our lives has been preparation for these moments.

I'm clinging to that truth. I'm aiming for a better future, knowing that the mess we're feeling isn't the end of the story. God is the end of the story. Keep reading!