May God bless you wherever you may be reading this. First, I want to thank God for inspiring me to give this past Sabbath’s message. I also want to thank the incredible pastoral staff at Meadow Glade Church for allowing the youth to be so involved.
This past Sabbath I spoke on Psalm 23 and how God calls us to walk through our valleys, not sit, but walk. This Biblical teaching brings to mind the story of the Israelites; they were a people who literally had to walk through a valley or a desert. Scripture tells us that the Israelites hated the desert so much that many of them would have preferred returning as slaves to Egypt than enduring the desert.
God gave the Israelites what they wanted: freedom. Why then were the Israelites now dissatisfied with their freedom and desiring their chains once again? I recall that some of the things I was praying for God to change in my life changed amidst the pandemic. God did what I asked Him to do, but then, I found myself missing the things that I asked Him to take away. The Israelites complained because it is truly hard being uncomfortable. It is truly hard being removed from what we are use to in our daily lives and being removed from our comforts.
I have found myself wishing that everything could just go back to normal. It is really easy to look back. However, as Christians, I think it is important that we should keep looking forward, not backward, to a new normal. Just like the Israelites, what lies ahead is better than what is behind us. There is a promised land ahead and the Good Shepherd walks with us along the way.
My prayer for all of us is that we may endure this desert, endure the discomfort, that we may keep walking, walking forward to a new normal.
—Josue Mendez