Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:9)

When everything feels like one red light after another, God has placed His people in this chaos on purpose—to seize the opportunity and to shine.

Stuck at Every Red Light

This last week a picture came to my mind that helped me frame what I have been feeling for some time. For the past eleven months, as we have walked through this strange corporate experience together, I have carried a low-level anxiety born of a general frustration—and this image helped me understand it.

Imagine it is afternoon and you are trying to get across town, caught in traffic, and every stoplight you reach is on the tail end of yellow and just switching to red. You can feel the physical indicators of stress: your blood pressure rises, your anxiety heightens. You may not consider yourself an anxious person—I would not call myself one—but in that situation you can feel it build.

You need to get somewhere, and everything seems to be keeping you from it. The destination doesn't even matter; you are simply being hindered. And just as your frustration is about to boil over from internal stress into external anger, someone in no hurry at all pulls into your lane, and the green light you could have made turns yellow. Now the anger leaks out, first verbally, then physically as you smash the steering wheel. If you have ever tried to get anywhere, you have had this experience. I have had it multiple times in the last thirty days.

A Pastor Watching from the Couch

This image came to my mind last Sunday afternoon. Like many of you, I got up last Sunday morning and, instead of doing what I feel like the lead preaching pastor of a local church is supposed to do, I went downstairs in my sweats and sat on the couch with my family and watched the service online. I cannot fully express how much of a frustration that is for me—whether I am watching another pastor preach online or watching myself preach. I have that feeling that this is not where I am supposed to be, and I'm trying to get back to where I belong, but there is red light after red light.

The rational part of my brain keeps reminding me to take a deep breath and calm the lower part of my brain down. Everything of the last ten or eleven months feels like being stuck in traffic. And polling suggests I'm not the only one. Many people throughout our society have acknowledged heightened stress and anxiety—even people who wouldn't normally describe themselves that way—because of all that has been going on. It is a challenge to carry that cumulative stress over many months.

Red Light After Red Light

With each new compounding event, it's as if there is another slow driver and another red light. Two weeks to slow the spread flows into two more weeks of shutdown—another red light. No toilet paper—another red light. Mask mandates, George Floyd, protests, riots, BLM, wildfires, political campaigns—red light, red light, red light. Election day, election uncertainty. Stay-at-home orders through Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Georgia election. January 6th in Washington, D.C.—that's not just a red light, that's a road closure and a detour.

A year ago I began teaching through Deuteronomy, and admittedly I have not gotten nearly as far as I expected. But I was thinking this week about the children of Israel and Moses through those wilderness wanderings—basically thirty-eight years of stop-and-go traffic. Moses had some steering wheel outbursts along the way, because Moses wasn't perfect. And neither are we.

"What's Your Word for 2021?"

At the end of 2019, I shared publicly that I thought 2020 would be a year of chaos. It certainly was. So now people ask me, "What's your word for 2021?" Let me begin by saying I am not a prophet—not in the sense of telling the future. But sometimes it is relatively easy to see how things are converging and what the outcome will be.

There are dash-cam videos from Teslas where the car alerts the driver a fraction of a second before an accident. People are amazed at the car's apparent supernatural prescience, but really its computer—with sonar, radar, and eight cameras—is simply predicting by physics what is about to happen. That's essentially what I was doing looking at 2019. I could see a presidential campaign season converging with everything else. 2016 was chaotic, 2012 was chaotic, 2008 was chaotic. You don't have to be a prophet to figure out what's coming.

So I am not a prophet, but I will tell you this: we live in a broken and chaotic world. You knew that already. Even before COVID, you were impacted many times by the brokenness of this world. And the current conditions suggest the chaos isn't fully letting up. We are stuck in traffic, and there is an anxiety to it. After 9/11 there was that general feeling of "what's next?" You probably feel that right now.

Wherever There Is Conflict and Chaos

Being that this is our reality, I have been trying to figure out how best to respond—as an individual, a follower of God, a husband, father, pastor, leader, friend, and neighbor. Many who have asked for a word were hoping for something more positive than "chaos," and understandably so. People want some optimism about the future.

And we should have it. If you go to the beliefs section of our website, the first thing you'll see is that we want everything we do to be done with joy, because we have an optimistic vision of the future. That optimistic vision has Christ seated on the throne, ruling and reigning forever, and us reigning with Him in righteousness where there is no sorrow, pain, suffering, or sickness. We have an optimistic vision of the future.

This is my first message of the new year, so it is as good a time as any to share the impression I've had. I'm not saying "thus sayeth the Lord," but as I've prayed, read the Scriptures, and listened, an impression keeps coming. On December 4, 2019, I was at a missions gathering at Saddleback Church where Pastor Rick Warren made this statement: wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move. It caught my attention and I wrote it down. 2020 became a year of chaos, and the conditions haven't really changed.

If you take notes, that might be worth writing on a card for your bathroom mirror: wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move. When conflict or chaos comes, we can fall into a cycle of pessimism, always looking for the next bad thing. But if this is true, then when you see conflict and chaos you should immediately say, "The Lord is doing something," and ask, "God, what are You doing? And what would You have me to do?"

What God Does Not Want

We have seen conflict and chaos at nearly every level—the news media, politics, market volatility, law enforcement, race relations, the tech sector, medicine, our families and relationships. But wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move.

So let me tell you what I know God does not want me doing in the traffic jam of conflict and chaos: He doesn't want me losing my cool, spinning up with stress and anxiety. If the fruit of the Spirit includes gentleness, patience, and self-control, then those are the things that should mark my life. So what does He want? I have a couple of words that have been impressed upon my heart.

The First Word: Opportunity

I had somewhere I wanted to get in 2020. As a pastoral and leadership team, we began the year with plans and visions about where we'd be by now. Instead I feel like I've hit every red light and major detour, and sometimes I've thought, "Lord, we are further from the destination at the beginning of 2021 than we were at the beginning of 2020." Maybe you can relate.

In all of this I keep returning to a verse. In Galatians 6:9, Paul writes:

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

I have come back to this verse many times when I feel stuck in traffic and nothing is moving the way it should. Don't grow weary, frustrated, angry, or irritable when you are doing the good and right things the Lord has called you to do. At the right time you will reap a harvest if you do not lose heart. Don't give up.

But for some reason I have too often pulled that verse out of its context. It doesn't sit by itself. Verse 10 says:

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

And one book later, in Ephesians 5, Paul writes:

Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

We live in a broken and chaotic world. In the midst of evil days we need to be careful and circumspect—eyes wide open, ears attentive, head on a swivel. As my dad says, "If you're paying anything, pay attention." We need to walk wisely, redeeming the time and making the most of every opportunity, doing good to everyone, especially the household of faith.

Chaotic times are opportune times. I have allowed my frustrations to get the best of me far too often, and I've had to remind myself: this is a time of opportunity. Opportunity for what? To wisely redeem the times and do good—and to not grow weary while doing it, because we are planting seeds that will bring fruit if we don't give up. The temptation is to throw in the towel, and we have to fight it. So there is the first word for 2021: opportunity. God is seeking to do a work in me, through me, through your life, through our church, to our community and to the world.

The Second Word: Shine

For the second word we turn to one of my favorite books, Isaiah. In Isaiah 60:1 the prophet says:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising... Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy.

In the midst of deep darkness, God calls His people to arise and shine. How? Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Our good works shine brightly, bringing glory to our Father. Isaiah 60 was a word to a people who would be in severe difficulty—a dreadful trial of darkness because of their sin. They would be exiled in Babylon. And if I'm going to give any predictive word, it is this: we are going to increasingly feel like outsiders in our culture, just as Israel did when Jerusalem was sacked and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC and the people were carried into exile for over seventy years. We will feel like exiles in the midst of an antagonistic, paganistic culture. And in the midst of that, God says, "Arise and shine."

A Word for Exiles: Jeremiah 29

Isaiah wrote those words around 700 BC. About a hundred years later, as the people were going into captivity, the prophet Jeremiah gave them a word that is applicable to us. In Jeremiah 29:1, Jeremiah writes a letter from Jerusalem to the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away to Babylon. We find ourselves in an equivalent situation—not led away captive, but living in a culture that is increasingly godless and antagonistic. Here is God's word to them:

Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters... that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace... Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you... For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Something in those words is jarring. Four times in those verses God makes clear that their plight was according to His plan. He says, "I have caused you to be carried away," and "seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive." Their plight was according to His plan. You might want to write that down.

Their Plight According to His Plan

Why would God allow His people to be in such a fix? There are many good answers, but here is one important consideration: the brightness of God's glory shines greatest from the darkness of our captivity.

There were many false soothsaying prophets 2,500 years ago, just as there have been false prophets in our day who prophesied that our political situation would be different than it is. "Do not let your prophets and your diviners deceive you... I have not sent them, says the LORD." That is not a popular word, but it is our situation. We are in the midst of an increasingly godless, paganistic, antagonistic culture—we are in the midst of Babylon. And God calls His people to live there: to build houses, plant gardens, have children and grandchildren, and maintain their place as the people of God.

This is part of why our focus on small groups, community, and connect groups has always been so important—so that the people of God can be connected even while living in darkness, shining as bright lights in a dark world. This is an opportunity. It may not feel like a good one, but it is God's opportunity, given to us to shine the glory of our Father by our good works.

Make the Most of It

So in the stop-and-go traffic of strange and chaotic times, let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. These are my two words for 2021: opportunity and shine. God has given us an opportunity in the midst of conflict and chaos, because anytime there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to do a work. He wants us to make the most of it, and He wants us to shine—that men may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Let me reiterate something from a recent announcement: reach out to your neighbors. Get them a gift card to a local business, make them cookies, give them a card, invite them to join us online. We need to be the community of God's people, knit together as the church even though we are not gathered corporately in our own large space. When Israel was exiled in Babylon, they could not gather in their own place, separated from Jerusalem and the temple, surrounded by an antagonistic culture—and yet they thrived. God's people have thrived in far harder circumstances than ours. I don't like these circumstances, but this is relatively good compared to what some Christians experience elsewhere right now. This is an opportunity for you and me to shine, so that people would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Closing Prayer

Father, that is my prayer for us, Your people. Would You pour out Your Spirit and quicken us, enable us to shine brightly during these challenging times. Lord, help us to make the most of this opportunity, to redeem the time, even though the days are evil and things seem to be against us. We can be pessimistic, frustrated, and stressed like we're sitting in traffic, or we can realize that You have us in this situation, that You have allowed it and purposed it, because You have a plan in the midst of our plight for Your glory. So God, shine in and through Your church. May we be like the moon, which has no light of its own but reflects the light of the sun to a dark world. Help us to reflect Your light and not to be eclipsed by the things of this world that discourage us, but to get into the position where we shine Your light the greatest. Do that work in us, Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.