Positive thinking! The idea is associated with an American teacher and theologian named Norman Vincent Peale, but it is actually a much older concept. While today's verse was written by Paul, Jesus was very much a positive thinker. For example, Jesus took an earlier teaching, "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you", and turned it around into the positive form: "Do to others what you would have them do to you." (Matthew 7:12 NIV) His new way of looking at it invited positive thinking and positive action.

I know people who are constantly talking about the church in despairing and negative terms. More than once, I have been asked, "So, Angus, what churches are in trouble in Waterloo-Wellington Presbytery?"

I respond that the presbytery is in very good shape, although there are two small churches that are struggling. Often, the response comes, "Churches are dying right across the country." I have been tempted to call anyone with this attitude "Eeyore", remembering the downright negative, gloomy donkey of the Winnie the Pooh stories.

Frankly, I find people like this difficult to talk to. They have little good to say, and there's not much that's hopeful or helpful in their words or their tone. Paul tells us in today's Scripture passage to think about what is noble and right and pure, good and lovely and admirable, but he isn't asking us to sugarcoat things or to look at the world through rose-coloured glasses. After all, he starts by saying, "whatever is true".

Our Eeyore friends would do well to think about the words of the prophet Habakkuk, who looks at a collapsing world and says:

Habakkuk 3:17-18 – Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. (NIV)

When times are tough and we are tempted to throw in the towel, we must remember this: God is faithful. Whatever the future may hold, God is there in the fullness of His love.

Prayer: Lord our God, fill us with the certainty of Your presence and Your love through Jesus Christ! We give thanks that the victory is Yours, whatever our circumstances. Amen.

Years ago, while I was in high school, I had several friends who really enjoyed Mad magazine. One of them regularly bought each issue, and we would get together and read it. The face of Alfred E. Neuman, freckled and sporting a toothy grin, stared out at us with the words "What, me worry?" prominently displayed.

Jesus spoke about worry, saying that we should let God do the worrying and just get on with life. Realize that you are valuable to God and He will be faithful, He said.

Lately, I have heard many people concerned about stock fluctuations and the general market downturn of the past few weeks. Does it scare you or cause you to worry? I have also heard a few people say, usually with a shrug, "Why should I worry? It's only money."

Which is your attitude?

Jesus says simply, "Trust! God will provide." I have seen enough to know it's true. I admit that I myself have not been put to the test, having nothing but God to rely on. I have lived all my life being well provided for and in reasonable comfort. But I have known people who had nothing but hope, and yet found that God provided, people who never had stocks or bonds or even a daily wage. They did not worry or panic, but trusted God.

That's challenging. In a society where we have always relied on ourselves and our jobs and income and investments, we don't think about what it would be like to have nothing and to simply rely on God. In many countries of our world, people face nothingness and starvation every day, but in this part of the world, it is different. When the bottom fell out of the stock market in the twenties, people who lost everything committed suicide because they couldn't face poverty and starvation. They couldn't see beyond their own inability to provide for themselves. Can we?

We don't know what lies ahead: recovery and renewed financial vitality, or recession, or depression, or even complete economic collapse. The question is, do we rely on anything more than our financial portfolios?

I wonder what I would do if I had nothing. I hope that if that day comes, I will stand with certainty that God will be faithful. After all, it's only money.

Proverbs 3:6 – In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)

Prayer: Loving God, teach us to trust instead of worrying, to hope instead of despairing, and to grow instead of standing still. We have discovered Your grace, but there is so much we still have to learn. Help us to be good students, listening, discovering, obeying. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

On the 9th of December, 2007, my father-in-law died. My wife had just returned four days earlier from a visit to her parents in British Columbia, Canada, and though her dad was declining and having some difficulty, his death was completely unexpected. On the 10th, she returned west to be with her mom and brothers. Over the next couple of weeks, we received many, many cards and phone calls, especially from our congregation, and yes, the "casserole brigade" did their thing as well. It is not always easy to accept gifts from others, but today's Scripture passage means a good deal to us as we think of all we received — the expressions of support and concern and compassion.

Why do we share with others at times of grief and sorrow? It's because we have experienced the same thing and know the emotional upheaval it brings.

God comforts us in our sorrow, by His Spirit, through those in our congregations and through friends near and far. Then we take the gift of comfort that we have experienced and share it with others in their sorrow, and the gift keeps on being given. Life after life is affected, and friends are made, both for us and for Jesus Christ.

The sorrow doesn't go away; anyone who has experienced grief knows that. It is not a passing phase or a momentary experience. Grief remains. Sometimes, it sits quietly in the background, but at a moment's notice, a sound or a smell or a photo brings it rushing back to excruciating reality, and we feel that the cycle is starting all over again. Faith and our connection with God helps us cope; trusting in the knowledge of Jesus and the salvation and promise that He gives makes a huge difference. But no less important is the knowledge that we are not alone, that others having the same faith, and following the same Lord, are ready to listen and to share with us.

Let us remember those we know who are experiencing grief. A card, a smile, a hug: such things mean so much.

1 Corinthians 12:12a,26a,27 – The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (NIV)

Prayer: Lord, thank You that You comfort us. Thank You for friends, fellow sojourners in Christ, caring congregations, and for Your Spirit, the Comforter. With what we have received, lead us to stand with and to serve others who are grieving. In the name of Jesus Christ, our healer, we pray. Amen.

This passage is challenging in many ways, but especially when we love to be right. We talk about right and wrong as if the dividing line were clear and precise, but it isn't always.

Consider the letter H. We pronounce it "aitch" and give it a breathing sound. If someone said it was an N, we would tell them they were wrong. If someone said it is an E, we would again say they were wrong. But in the Cyrillic alphabet (Russian, Ukrainian, etc.), H is the equivalent of our N, and to the modern Greeks, H is the vowel E. They are not wrong, they just look at things differently.

To bear with someone is to be patient with them, to listen carefully to them, to consider what they are saying, and even, as the old saying goes, to "walk a mile in their shoes", or to try to look at things from their perspective.

The things that come between us — arguments, points of view, and even denominational doctrines and theologies — are often just different views of the same truth. How important it is to bear with one another and to seek love, which binds us "all together in perfect unity". Let us remember that Jesus' great prayer for His followers centred on unity:

John 17:20-23 – I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (NIV)

Prayer: Lord God, help us to be quick to love and slow to judge. Help us each to be guided by Your Spirit in all our relationships. Through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.