The trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble

Listen to these wonderful sentences that rests comfortably at the beginning of Paul's letter to the church in Thessalonica: "^2-5Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you're in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father."

Man, oh, man. Paul, creator of many of the new churches in the new faith many called The Way (or Christianity) thanks others for their work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope.

When we were listening to the inmates of Raymond Correctional Center tell us what they were leaving the four-day event called Kairos with, this past Sunday, one said he was leaving "with hope." I thought at the time and I think now that is what this long walk is all about. Isn't it? Hope. We struggle and we fail, but we leap with joy and hope. Hope springs, what, eternal? Hope lifts us when we're down. Hope raises us from economic and emotional graves. Hope is about all we can, well, hope for.

Paul continues: "It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special."

I see many of my congregants who have been marked, whether they acknowledge it or not, for something special. Many of the persons I work with have been given a task to complete, a task to accomplish, a specific task to do and the question is simply whether they will do it or not. Many choose not to. Many hear the call of God and boldly say it is something else entirely.

Paul finishes the beginning (can you imagine that this is merely his beginning to the letter?) in this manner: "When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions." That's the way it happened in many of our lives. We were basically minding our own business, and wham, God intervened with his plan given to us through the Holy Spirit.

Friends, I never asked to be given a ministry. I never asked to be painting houses or changing lives or any of those things. God gave me this ministry, I heard his quest, answered the quest and here we are.

I pray for all those residents at RCC who have crossed paths, through our ministry with the living God whose power spread the Red Sea. I pray for all those inmates at RCC who have run across the living God whose power raised the dead, not once but as many times as it suited him. I pray for those residents at RCC who like slave-runner John Newton was once lost but are now found.

Paul describes the way Kairos works without meaning to. He writes, " ^5-6You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble."

Taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble. That's life within the walls as described by the man with the plan.