Pause: with Pastor Aaron

Between 1646 and 1647 a group of Anglicans came together in part to resolve an important question, "What is the reason man exists?"  The resulting document is known as the Shorter Westminster Catechism.  It simply says "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."  It's important that we keep this in its sequential order.   We exists (first) to glorify God with our lives. We exists (second) to enjoy Him forever.   The second is predicated on the first. Why this becomes important is that there are many times in life that we are called to glorify God in a manner that we do not enjoy.  Some times we are given seasons where we neither enjoy life not particularly enjoy God.  Every day seems a fight.  Every day brings us new difficulty, crisis and struggle.  If our mandate to glorify God is based upon how we feel in the moment, we would separate ourselves from Him.  We can not lose focus though on the fact that He is s...

Solomon wrote "There is a season for everything." The Byrds took that knowledge and sang "Turn Turn Turn."  Both understood that existence has moments, times and seasons that separate themselves from the normal hum-drum of life.  These ticks of the clock can be incredibly rich, such as times of great joy seen in new marriage, the birth of a new baby, or moving and starting fresh, but they can also be very hurtful and joyless.   Life brings us seasons where we don't understand why things are going on the way the are.  These can be seasons of wrought with darkness, anger, pain and suffering. Does it mean that God is with us in the one and absent from the other? Often the moment makes us feel that this is true. That's often the problems with feelings.  They are naturally subjective.  By subjective they are 'true' in the moment, but not 'true' after the fact.  This is one of the primary reasons that we can not trust them and should not l...