Dear Family --
I was reflecting this morning in my Facebook Live post from Lamentations 3:22-24. There Jeremiah the Prophet penned, “The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’”
I love those verses. They are good reminders.
For me, I wish I could just live out of the first sentence, “The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!” Isn’t that a good reminder? But, I have to admit, I don’t always live from that verse day by day!
This quarantine is a strange season. It has hit everyone’s lives in different ways. For some, they have seen little change - they work from home regularly, and this has heightened that. For others, jobs have been lost temporarily or permanently! For others, work has increased with heightened demand for the services they render. Our health care workers are some of these, on the front lines. Then there are others, the many, many local, small business owners whose businesses might be threatened with closure due to this. And then there are others whose work has moved home, along with their children’s work, and the juggling required for work, homeschool, and life is immense!
For me, it has been a hard adjustment into a new normal which I was not ready to embrace. That’s why today it was a good day to return to these verses from Lamentations.
The reminder that the Lord’s goodness, that UNFAILING love never ends, no matter the season, and that the Lord’s mercies are new EVERY MORNING, no matter the challenge, can also be tough to recall.
Sometimes, it is difficult to remind ourselves that what we are going through is stress producing. It requires that we look at our days through a new lens. It mandates that we approach relationships with a new starting point. The idea yesterday that all I needed to do was walk from one room of the house to another to “get to work” was daunting to me. It felt depressing! Where were the drives, the coffee shops and the conversations with real people sitting across from me? It was tough and hit me as such.
Reminding ourselves that this is challenging is important. It is the beginning of health. If we remind ourselves of that, and remind ourselves that it is also challenging for those around us, then, we can offer ourselves and others more grace.
Reports are coming in that domestic violence has gone up in the past weeks with the quarantine in effect. That is no surprise either but so disheartening for those families and so difficult. Remember this when people 6’ feet away from you in the store seem to be having a tough day. The stress is real and high for everyone. It helps to give others the benefit of the doubt and to hold them in prayer and hold yourself in prayer in those moments.
It is by God’s mercies, Jeremiah reminds us, that we have been kept from complete destruction. That’s a stark word but true for those to whom he first wrote -- those dragged away into exile and those left behind -- they’d survived by God’s mercy. We are alive by God’s mercy. Maybe that is the place to begin our days -- “thank you that we are here, alive, by your mercy, O Lord.”
And then remind ourselves, that each day begins with a new dose of God’s mercy. Mercy here is a word that speaks of God’s deep, abiding, ongoing, overflowing love. It is a deep, powerful word that can be translated with what seems to be the entire list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. It is one of those rich, dynamic words that means so much more than our understanding of “mercy” as getting less than we deserve. It is not something less but his mercies are the force of HIS love pouring forth into our hearts and lives moment by moment.
And Great, Jeremiah wrote, is God’s faithfulness. God’s steadfastness. You know the old chorus, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases?” The words go like this,
“The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning, new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness O Lord. Great is your faithfulness.”
Look it up. The link is above. It is an easy tune and I think Jeremiah got his words from that chorus. Ancient plagiarism, you know. :-)
So, with this kind of mercy and love and faithfulness offered into our lives, with the invitation for us to breathe it in, brand new, every day, let’s do it. On Sunday some of the words from life that people said were all kinds of positive ones -- “blessed, family, time, space, peace, rest, etc.” I was thrilled to hear how some are embracing this season. Indeed, embrace is our only choice, but some of us take a while to get there!
I’m praying for all of you daily. I miss you deeply. It is wonderful to see you on Sundays and during the other online gatherings that are occurring but it is not quite the same. You are all so brilliant in my heart and life.
So -- let’s live each day remembering that God’s mercies, that unfailing, steadfast, love, kindness, gentleness, and care from the Lord is NEW every day. And let’s embrace God’s unfailing love moment by moment as we live, play, work, do homeschool, “hear stories read through the door while our mom is in quarantine,” engage with the daily walk of life, and hug long distance.
“The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning, new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness O Lord. Great is your faithfulness.”