A friend recently testified to me of that core truth of our faith: Our God is able. He reminded me that when we are lost, God’s able to find us. When we’re crushed by guilt, God’s able to lift this burden.
When we’re without vision, God’s able to inspire us. When we’re overwhelmed, God’s able to calm us. When we’re attacked, God’s able to deliver us. When we’re feeling disconnected, desiccated and discouraged, God’s able to reconnect us, refresh us and revive us.
God can take death itself, and transform it into life. God is able. Where do we need the Spirit of God to be at work among us? What will new life look like, after we open ourselves to the power of the Spirit?
As I was reading afterward, I came upon the inspired words of Dr. Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister, as he reflected on God's ability when he preached a stirring sermon. Dr. King stated: "At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds. There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God.
"We have genuflected before the God of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate. We have worshipped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills platy out and sensations are short lived.
"We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of recessions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart.
"Only God is able. It is faith in God that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism. Is someone here moving toward the twilight of life and fearful of that which we call death? Why be afraid? God is able.
"Is someone here on the brink of despair because of the death of a loved one, the breaking of a marriage, of the waywardness of a child? Why despair? God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed. Is someone here anxious because of bad health? Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able."
Dr King concluded his message, which is just as relevant today as when he gave it years ago, by proclaiming:
"This would be an unbearable world were God to have only a single light, but we may be consoled that God has two lights: a light to guide us in the brightness of the day when hopes are fulfilled and circumstances are favorable, and a light that guides us in the darkness of the midnight when we are thwarted and the slumbering giants of gloom and hopelessness rise in our souls. And so we know that God is able to give us the interior resources to face the darkness as well as the light.
"Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom.
"When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds and our nights become even darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great good Power in the universe whose name is God, and God is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. This is our hope for becoming better people. This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world. Amen!"
I agree, Dr. King. Amen and Amen!
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