Back Pain and Life , June 2025

From the desk of Pastor David, June 2025

I am writing this month’s letter from my bed as I am struggling with severe back pain from a herniated disk (something that has vexed me on and off for the last 30 years). I did this to myself because I keep forgetting I’m not 30 anymore and lifting ten bags of mulch into and out of a small car has consequences.

It is ironic for me to be going through this right now because an extraordinary number of our members have also been suffering from a plethora of maladies, so I have made more pastoral visits to hospitals and rehab facilities than at any other time of my ministry here at Grace. But I’m not telling you all this to depress you, rather, to encourage you.

We know the routine. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3). And we know that our status as Christians does not exempt us from pain, sickness, or discouragement, especially as we grow older.

Every day we see and hear stories of people passing away, rich and poor, young and old, famous and infamous. Many of them, by all appearances, had no relationship with God and rejected the Way of Life. All the things that supported them and gave them hope, their wealth, their power, their relationships, their status, their careers, their possessions; all are gone from them and are of no use to them anymore, the epitome of disappointment and despair.

But we who have persevered as faithful disciples of Jesus have a glorious hope, that no
matter what troubles come our way in this life, a different place has been prepared for us
where we will experience no sickness, no pain, no suffering, no disappointment; only peace, joy, and love in perpetual adoration of our God and Father through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.    Amen and Amen

Blessings to you,  David