Jeremiah 8:22

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

This is a picture of our Thursday Morning Bible Study this fall.  We find a way to be together, but it isn’t how we want to be together. Someone asked me where the line is of masks or no masks and I said, “I’m not sure, but I know what side of the line we are on right now.”  In late August, CSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital lent ventilators to UC Health.  This week, we have children from our church with the virus.  Children that can’t yet be vaccinated. 

Wednesday, I will head down to Texas to be with my friend who was unvaccinated and has COVID.  He’s my age with no underlying conditions except weight.  He’s home now from the hospital after a two week stay.  Sadly, his girlfriend Megan just died from the virus.  It’s tragic, it’s frustrating, and it’s real.  

I must admit I’m feeling a lot of feelings.  Regret. Megan was special to Keith and I never met her.  Anger. Please get vaccinated! Sadness, Fear, Frustration. You name it, I have felt it.  In all these things, I cannot live up to the Grace that has been bestowed upon me through Jesus.

Jeremiah’s words are difficult to hear on the best of days, but now they sound hopeless, and they are hitting too close to home.  

There is an African Spiritual that I was reminded of this week in our bible study that brings me hope.  It brings me hope, not because it wipes away the pain, but it reminds me that this depth of pain is not unique to God’s people. It is powerful when you are feeling the pain and discouragement like Jeremiah, because when you are in that place it reminds you that you are not beyond God’s Grace.

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sin-sick soul.

Pastor Michael