From the Pastor's Desk (Mar. 2026)

If you have been to any of the last few worship services, the above scripture may sound familiar. More than familiar, I hope it strikes a chord with you. It speaks of a God who is interested in you. He’s not merely a God who decided to mass produce a bunch of two-legged creatures with some intelligence in a helter-skelter way. He created you with a distinct purpose, as you can clearly see with some study of the 139th Psalm, and has amazing things planned for you.

There are a lot of colorful “four-letter words” that we learned at a young age we are to avoid – what we call “cuss” words. I wonder whether God may see the four-letter “L” word we often think of this time of year in the same light – as a cuss word - when we understand the intentionality with which He works. Could you really be cussing when you use the word luck?

I have never really thought of it that way myself, but something struck me this past week as I was running through my brain the last couple of things we have left to do at our old place before we can finally list it for sale. The undertaking of packing, moving, loading and unloading truckloads of stuff, making repairs inside and out, painting, cleaning, and just the acts of having people find the house for us, using their expertise as our realtor, and having a church full of folks, as well as some other friends outside the church, who were willing to go above and beyond to help us out - it’s hard not to feel bad about these acts of kindness. The fact is, there is no sufficient way to thank everyone properly for all you did for us.

It would be very easy to say how lucky we are to have been brought to this church that we absolutely love, to have the opportunity to serve here, and to have such kind and generous folks. Aren’t we so lucky? Aren’t all of us lucky from time to time when things seem to go our way, when we find special people in our lives, either through spouses, family, or friends, or when we find that perfect job, nice house, or any of the other good fortunes that come our way? When we think of where we could be instead, didn’t luck just find its way to us?

We are so used to saying that, that many of us may not understand why luck can be such a slap in the face to God. But the fact is, God loves us, He knows the plans He has for us, His desire is to always bring us to a place where we are blessed by Him. Nothing good like that just happens accidentally. Luck implies that some people always have great things, and some people always have bad things. Luck implies that God only likes a few people – those who seem to have good things happen, and that He ignores those who find themselves in very difficult places in life.

But the fact is, we all have unfortunate things happen to us. Some of the most influential people in our world were once in places where life hit rock-bottom. They might have said how unlucky they were – but then they wouldn’t have the story they have to tell now. Regardless of how awful or amazing life seems, how unlucky or lucky we think we are, God has a plan for each one of us who are willing to trust Him with our lives. And when we allow faith to win the day, we will find that the appropriate statement to make is to declare how blessed we all are. Thanks for being an awesome church and an amazing blessing!
~Pastor Eric