Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

"The Fearful Future" How do we face a future that may have us suffer through it? Any future will have its amount of suffering. There are three things to keep in mind: First of all to life is to suffer. To be alive is to experience pain. We face the future with the knowledge that we can take it and no matter what it is. There is no pain we cannot bear. The essential message of the Cross is that at its very worst we have to capacity of carry it. Secondly if we can find some reason to live it or some meaning in it we can carry our suffering proudly. It becomes a burden that blesses us and not a weight we are unable to stand. When Jesus went to his death on the cross he was able to say, "Not my will but Thy will be done." He put his suffering within the context of the whole meaning of his life . Finally, if we can see our pain as related to the whole of creation we can begin to look at all of life as a test and to live out our faith in the bad times and the good times. Our suffering becomes redemptive; our pain is seen as a part of the whole of life's working out of a transformation. There are cosmic consequences to our suffering and when we connect with that we conquer our pain by living through it. Here are the points to the sermon thus far. If you have thoughts on the subject write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you would like to share your thoughts with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments' box below. If you would like a rough draft of the sermon today or tomorrow morning before I being to rewrite it let me know and I am happy to send it to you. My email address is listed above. I look forward to hearing from you. Charles Schuster