Hey Glen Mar,
How was your week?
It was a little stressful for me. It always is this time of year. Laura and the kids go back to school, our routines change, and our time gets even more packed. It can be a lot!
And I find that I don’t always do so well with change. How about you?
I remember when I was a kid, my stomach would be in knots on the first day of school. I never understood why, until I told my grandmother and she assured me that it was normal. Learning that it was ‘normal’ to feel nervous and anxious when facing something new was comforting.”
For the children and families who began school this week, just remember it is normal to have nervousness, anxiety, and worry when it comes to starting a new school year. Even though many of you have gone to school before, it still feels difficult. Why? Because it is a change! Change is hard! But know that those uncomfortable feelings will pass in time. Your stomach will likely go back to normal. Your anxiety will probably dissipate in time.
It is going to get better, maybe not perfect, but better.
Oftentimes, when we are in a storm of life…even a change we know is coming, like a new school year, can feel like a storm; it can feel like we are going to drown. The story from Matthew 8:23-27 comes to mind, where the disciples and Jesus are on the boat in the Sea of Galilee when a great storm comes out of nowhere.
The disciples were all fishermen, well, at least a bunch of them were. But notice that even though they had encountered storms before on the same sea, they were still fearful for their lives. They still felt as if they were going to drown! But here’s the thing: in their fear and worry, in their nervousness and anxiety, they reach out to Jesus. They wake him up. He is asleep and at peace even while his disciples are terrified. When he gets up, he calms the storm and encourages their faith.
What’s the point?
“When I am weak, I am strong,” the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians. What if we thought of the new beginning or the change we face, like beginning a new school year or whatever new challenge you are experiencing, as a moment to recognize our weakness and an opportunity to reach out to Jesus for his strength? What if we took this moment to say, “You know what? I really am weak, and I need Jesus.” Imagine how truly strong we can become in the midst of our storms when we remember that Jesus can calm the waves and silence the storms of life…or even just sit with us in the boat as we go through them.
As we start this new school year, be encouraged. Whatever anxiety you face or storm you are encountering, remember we serve a Lord who “commands even the wind and the water, and they obey him!” You are not alone, for he is in the boat with you, and so is your Glen Mar Church family.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Chris
