Growing up I attended church camp every summer from third grade through the summer of my senior year in high school, and then I worked two summers at the same camp while in college. Spending time at camp was the highlight of my year. One of the indelible memories of time spent at camp was singing the song, They Will Know we are Christians by our Love:

“We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord;
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored,
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. 
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

So, the question as we live day in and day out: How are we known? Are our lives an example for others? ... Do we love others as Christ loves us? ... Does our love for others facilitate a common journey grounded in unity? Or are we fear driven and anxiety ridden? 

Howard Thurman writes:

“God is present with me in the midst of my anxieties . . . God makes immediately available to me the strength of His goodness, the reassurance of His wisdom and the heartiness of His courage. My anxieties are real; they are the result of a wide variety of experiences, some of which I understand, some of which I do not understand. One thing I know concerning my anxieties: they are real to me. Sometimes they seem more real than the presence of God. When this happens, they dominate my mood and possess my thoughts. The presence of God does not always deliver me from anxiety, but it always delivers me from anxieties. Little by little, I am beginning to understand that deliverance from anxiety means fundamental growth in spiritual character and awareness. It becomes a quality of being, emerging from deep within, giving to all the dimensions of experience a vast immunity against being anxious. This calm is the manifestation in life of the active, dynamic presence of God.” (Meditations of the Heart, p. 50)

May the prayer of Julian of Norwich be ours: “God of goodness, give me yourself, for you are sufficient for me.” Bathed in God’s presence, we are delivered from our anxieties and fear, and we love as God loves us. Bathed in God’s presence: “We are one in the spirit; we are one in the Lord, and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

See you in Church,

Pastor Doug