01-24-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 24, 2025
I’d like to briefly discuss patience, which will be the topic of Sunday’s message. In 2011, the late author, Rachel Held Evans, referenced a poem by the 16th-century mystic, St. Teresa of Ávila. Here’s the poem:

Let nothing upset you,
Let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins all it seeks.
Whoever has God lacks nothing:
God alone is enough.

When referencing this poem, Rachel was talking about the criticism she was receiving, and I’m certain she received a lot as she was deconstructing her evangelical faith in public. What do you need to hear from the poem when you are on the receiving end of unjust and unkind criticism?

Holy and Unchanging God, I reach out to you in those tough moments when negativity appears at my doorstep unexpectedly. While it may sting a little, I pray that it never causes me to doubt my value and purpose. Amen.