“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13 NIV)
Yesterday I left home to travel 14 driving hours away to see a high school play that my two nieces are in. One is a senior and one is a freshman, so this is the only year they will both be in the play. Family from three states are coming to see the play and support the girls, and it is a blessing to be able to share this experience with them.
The play they are doing is Fiddler on the Roof, which follows Tevye, a Jewish milkman in the early 1900s, as he navigates life in a changing Russian village, trying to uphold his family’s traditions while his daughters pursue love in ways he never expected. The story explores the tension between tradition and change, family bonds, faith, and resilience in the face of social upheaval. Our high school did this play my freshman year, and I still remember some of the songs. When my oldest married two springs ago, I found myself singing “Sunrise, Sunset” because those lyrics gave words to my feelings:
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze*
As I watch these two sweet girls in the play, I am sure I will have some sense of “when did she get to be a beauty?” and “wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?” The reality is that time travels on – with or without us – and things do change. Some changes are evil and must be resisted, but many are neither good nor evil, just different. The character Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof knows the struggles with change, as his daughters grow up and the Jewish families, including Tevye’s, are forced by governmental authorities to leave their homes and are dispersed to different locations. Tevye, his family, and the other villagers faced an uncertain future, carrying their traditions and faith with them as they left behind the only home they had ever known.
In our world and society today it can feel like we’ve left “home” and are moving into an uncertain future, carrying with us only memories of what used to be. As our culture seems to teeter more and more on the brink of an internal war, we wonder what will become of our nation? Even as many are praying against the demonic spirits stirring up the deep divisions and even civil war, we are seeing places where God is moving in powerful ways. For the past ten days an outpouring of repentance, worship, and prayer on the campus of Southeastern University in Florida showed the power of God working among the young generations. The words of the prophet Joel can be seen today:
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29 NIV)
Even on men and women, old and young, God will pour out his Spirit.
Today – in the midst of deep division and drastic change – let us remember the faithfulness of our God. As he guided the growing up years of these two young actresses, as he guided Jewish families through the persecution of Czarist Russia, we can trust that he is guiding men and women, old and young, by his Spirit. We can trust that as he pours out his Spirit in our days, the world will change – for the better. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, power, truth, wisdom, knowledge, and all the fruits of the Spirit! Thanks be to God!
Faithful God,
Thank you for all that you do to pour into our lives. Thank you for the gifts and blessings we experience in the present, and the purposes, plans, and hope you have for our future. When we struggle with evil changes in our world, help us to fight in the spirit against evil. But when the changes are simply something different, help us to trust you in that change. Continue to pour out your Spirit on old and young, men and women. May we be people aligned so closely with your Spirit we never lose our peace. We ask this in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:13 NIV)
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:2 NIV)
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God… The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:14-16 NIV)
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)
You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. (Nehemiah 9:20 NIV)
*“Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof by Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) © 1964 Bock & Harnick, Inc. / Chappell & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.