the emergency Scripture list

photo courtesy of unsplash.com / Lukasz Szmigiel
fonts: KG One More Night by Kimberly Geswein and Frosting For Breakfast by Lee Batchelor

March 2nd of this year marked the anniversary of the day I decided that I wanted to be a follower of Jesus for the rest of my life.  It’s hard to believe that was twenty-four years ago.  If you’re curious, you can check out a post I wrote several years ago called finding grace, which is the short version of the story of how I came to know Christ, but tonight I want to tell you about something that happened later that year that has sustained me in keeping the commitment I made to Him.

Two of the counselors from the camp I’d been attending pulled an all-nighter to pray for a few of the students they knew who had become Christians during that year.  They asked God to give them specific verses that would speak to our lives over time, and words that would encourage us.  Then they wrote those verses and a few notes on the back covers of the Bibles they’d purchased, titled it an “Emergency Scripture List,” and gave them to us for Christmas.

Almost a quarter of a century later, I can look back and tell you: while all Scripture is God-breathed and speaks to us, these verses have been very specifically the Word of the Lord to me in so many seasons, as have the words my counselor penned to encourage me.

Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile know that thus far 2015 is not proving to be the happiest season of my life.  And yet for all the un-Happy-ness I’ve experienced this year, there have still been moments of joy, of faith, of confidence, and of trust – and yes, even happiness.

Today was the one of the more difficult days I’ve experienced, at least on an emotional level – and yet there was one moment this afternoon while I was sitting at my kitchen table, writing yet another cover letter for yet another job application, when (literally) the clouds parted and incredibly bright rays of light came pouring through my window, streaming across my kitchen table, over my keyboard, and into my face.  For just a moment, I was so caught up in the beauty and so filled with hope…

And over the years, the verses from the Emergency Scripture List have been like that ray of sunshine on the cloudiest of days.  They are beautiful and filled with hope.  (And we all need hope, yes?)

If there has ever been a season of my life that could be appropriately deemed an emergency, this might be it.  And so I am turning to the one place I know I can find hope: the Word of God (Jesus) and His written Word.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to write my way through that Emergency Scripture list.  Psalm 77 tells us that when we’re in distress, we need to remember the deeds of the Lord, to remember who He is, and what He’s done in the past.  Appeal to the years when you did see His faithfulness, and it will stir up your faith to remember that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever – and that just because you don’t know how He will deliver you does not mean He isn’t going to.

Speaking from the middle of it, I will still maintain that even in the midst of our darkest days, when we are as un-happy as we think we are ever going to be – happiness is not that complicated.  We may not always feel glad – but we can trust the One from whom all felicity (bliss, good fortune) comes.  We can trust Him to be who He has always been: the One who can turn our wailing into dancing.

Here’s a word of encouragement from the Emergency Scripture List to kick off the series:

“While on earth, you may struggle with much (Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 1:6).  Whatever happens, don’t let go of John 3:16.”

We’ll come back to the other verses later in this series, but first John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Whatever happens, that’s what we hold onto.  That kind of love.  The kind of love that gave up His Dearest One to rescue us from an eternal hell that would have been far worse than whatever kind of hell we might go through in this life.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be awful, awful days.  But you are loved.  There is Hope.  And He is more than enough.