The Joy of the Lord Is My Strength!

“...Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” 

(Nehemiah 8:10b, NLT)

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

It has been quite a journey confined by COVID 19 for the last whole month of April. However, it was not too bad at all as we look at it differently with the Christian eyes because we were able to find more time with God and our family. And it made us think about what the most important thing in our life is. We took a whole month to rearrange our life bringing God in the center of our life again even though we have to adapt to the new normal. 

One of those new normal most of us have experienced last month was using social media and its network. It has been around for a long time since early 1990’s; however, we did not know our life would depend on social media this much. It means we are doing our church together differently using social media, worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth continually even though we may not like it.

I heard someone say, “If Jesus comes to us in the 21st century, he must use the social media.” It made me stop and ponder as I prepared each week’s online gatherings with a question mark, “Really?” Some part of me doubted, “if Jesus comes to us right now, he does not need anything because he has the power to show people who he is. Jesus does neither need a Facebook account, nor Instagram, nor Twitter, nor Zoom meetings to get people’s attention.” I actually don’t know how Jesus would handle this if he comes to us right now though because I am not Jesus. 

Anyway, one thing that I have learned from April was that lots of people are living in social media, virtual world as real. “Wow! People share their life virtually, and people find inspiration there - relief, freedom, healing, and even their own self there, virtual self! And of course, people find happiness there when others like what they posted! In other words, when they get other’s attention more, they become much happier. If not, sad and depressed.” Sounds like people are controlled by this.

However, no one is free from this. We are longing for something, something that we don’t find in our real world - from our traditional face to face world, because we don’t like its smells, its colors and its voices and because we are too busy to handle them in real life. Something was totally missing!

Actually, it reminds me the story of a Hebrew slaves in Babylon about twenty five hundred years ago. Because of the enemy’s attack - Babylonians, their land was totally destroyed and they were captured by their enemies and lived as their slaves in a foreign land. Their homeland where they freely worshiped in the presence of the Lord was ruined and their temple was totally destroyed through the war. So they were not able to worship in the temple in Jerusalem any longer. They were not able to gather in their holy city any more. Something very important was truly missing!

“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, Nabucco by G. Verdi, Metropolitan Opera

So what did they do in exile? They prayed. Then, what happened? God heard their prayers. So, many years after, they were able to get back to their homeland and rebuilt the ruined walls in Jerusalem despite of many challenges in the holy city.

We know they had missed community gatherings in the holy city in the presence of God. But now, they gathered. Can we imagine that moment when all gathered together from long years of exile and rebuilt their ruined holy city, their home land? My heart is even pounding stronger and faster now and even my eyes are getting wet as I revisit that story in the Bible. 

So what did they do first after they rebuilt their home land, the city walls? According to the Nehemiah chapter 8, they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And the Levites (maybe, pastors in 21st century) read from the books of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage, which had been missing in their life for many years. Quite an emotion filled moment, isn’t it?

Now can anyone guess what was happening there as they heard the word of God in the holy city with their walls rebuilt? They all wept as they listened to the words of the Law of God. It was the happiest day; however, they all wept. Why? Maybe their memories of hardship and struggles, and of all those whom they lost in exile hit everyone’s hearts? Nehemiah reminded them where they are now, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God (Nehemiah 8:9b)”     

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we looking forward to that day of fully rebuilding something missing due to COVID 19? The day will come. And until then, we will continually worship the Lord in spirit and truth - our real normal!

Join me! 

Pastor Kyochul