Yes

Unlike the post for "No", this post is much easier to write in some ways.  I like to hear the word "Yes" in my life.  Would I like some ice cream? "Yes, yes I would."  Would you like to serve on that committee?  "Yes, I thought you'd never ask!"  Would you like to refer someone else to read my blog?  "Yes, it would be my pleasure."  Of course, as much as we like to hear yes and all the warm/fuzzy feelings that go along with it; there is a downside.  Sometimes we say "Yes" so much that life gets overcrowded and chaotic.  Sometimes we say "Yes" only because we cannot find a way to say "No."  And then weeks after the fuzzy feelings are gone and we have to go to the meeting or feel obligated to do something, we can feel a different sensation: annoyance or stress or just plain exhaustion.

The initial euphoria of "Yes" can be like a cotton candy sugar rush that sustains us for only so long.

Yet, there are other moments when "Yes" echoes across our soul sustaining us for weeks, months, and years.  God's emphatic "Yes" can be like that.  It is the kind of "Yes" that is made at a wedding.  This week my wife and I celebrated our 13th anniversary.  I know, it is still not a major milestone in some ways.  According to the Hallmark website, which is the go-to source for all things related to anniversaries, I should have given my wife either something lace or a textile fur...I did neither.  I hope what I offered was even better.  I offered a "Yes" to our continued covenant of marriage.  Yes to celebrating the "for better" times this year and Yes to sticking through the "for worse" times.  Yes to trying to be more patient.  Yes to paying attention to our relationship because it matters to my life.  Yes to the hope that this year will continue to grow in love and appreciation of each other.

Each Sunday we gather to worship, which is one way to affirm/celebrate/and hear God's "Yes" to us.  That does not mean that God is some gumball vending machine just simply saying "Yes" to our every prayer whim.  What we affirm is the emphatic "Yes" of our baptism.  Remember when Jesus was baptized the waters rushed off his drenched face and he gasped for air as he came out of the Jordan.  Suddenly he heard God saying, "You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased."  God said "Yes".  Then, Jesus faced 40 days of prayer and temptation in the wilderness...so "Yes" is not some money-back guarantee.  But it is an affirmation that can carry us through what we face this week.  

On Sunday we hear God's "Yes" reverberate through  hymns we love and new hymn we are learning.  We hear God's "Yes" when we read Scripture and dwell in the Word.  We hear God's "Yes" in prayer...not as an answer, but as an affirmation that God hears us and knows us and will be with us no matter what in the week ahead.

While I sometimes wish that God's "Yes" was to make my every wish come true, I realize in worship that what I actually need is God's presence in my life.  There is more than a trace of God's grace in that "Yes".

Happy Sabbath and blessings ~