The following is paraphrased from a recent sermon by Rev. Michael Beckwith of the Agape Church in LA. I felt it was so appropriate for so many of us right now that I have attempted to reproduce it here:
Many of us are experiencing a state of crisis right now, on a personal, national, and/or global level. It is the common human response to get caught up in the panic. We long for how things used to be and keep looking back to what things were. Or we pray for more money, a bigger house, etc. to solve all of our problems. We blame ourselves for not being good enough, thinking if only we had done this or that it all would have been different. We do all of this instead of being thankful and excited and anticipate something beyond what we can presently visualize, something beyond what we have ever heard, seen, or felt is about to happen. In this we miss what a crisis really is, an opportunity.
If one could listen to a little chick still inside the egg it would be praying “Please God give me a bigger egg.” Or it would be bemoaning “Why can’t things be like they used to be when I could fit in the egg.” But life has much more in store for that chick. There is a universe beyond anything that that chick has ever heard, felt, or seen waiting for it. And as its neck gets stronger and its body bigger the crisis becomes a magnificent birth.
When there is a crisis it gives us a tremendous amount of focus and motivation to change that which is not working. When things are going well we tend to let things go instead of fixing them. We naturally resist change, so the motivating factor sometimes has to increase before we are moved to take action or to change our thinking.
Rather than panicking, stay open to what needs to be changed. Expect good things to come your way beyond what seems likely or possible. In that anticipation answers always come.
