ABBA

Trinity Family,

As we seek to make sense of the time we are in, where do we even begin? Each day's developments bring new guidelines causing us all to go to our Plan B and then C and then D and then wonder if it's wise to make any plans at all. Our schedules are completely upended, our futures are full of uncertainty and our hearts are fighting anxiety. None of us have ever experienced anything like this. Where do we even begin?

I want to offer a place to start. Just one word. "Abba". As we have been learning, Jesus taught us that this is where all prayer begins; with saying "Our Father". In those two words (one word in the original Aramaic), we grab a hold of God's promise to be with us in our loneliness, to take care of all our needs and to protect us from harm. In this word, we take hold of the unchanging status we have by faith in Jesus as God's sons and daughters and we remember all the rights and privileges that are ours by grace.

Crying out "Abba" is how we can take refuge in the safety of God's good purpose for us and the world. Crying out "Abba" is how we can remember we are heirs to a kingdom that cannot be shaken as sons and daughters (Galatians 4:6-7). Crying out "Abba" is how we break the viral spread of fear in our hearts by crying out to our Abba for all that is broken and groan with hope for our coming redemption (Romans 8:15-25). We cry out "our Abba" and remember we have brothers and sisters who are there for us; we ask for their prayers and we pray for them.