When We Don’t Have An Answer

It seems like we often have more questions than answers in life.

Sometimes answers seem hard to come by, and out of reach. This can make it difficult to focus our thoughts, to answer honestly, and to even grasp the questions at hand.

In the Bible we often read of Jesus asking someone He has encountered “What do you want me to do for you?” They seem to usually be able to answer quickly and directly – “I want to see.” “I want to be healed.” “Can you save my child?”

I’m not always sure how I would answer that question if Jesus asked me. Let alone how to answer a lot of the questions I have every day. But our verse for this month reminds us how to focus our thoughts, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” – Philippians 4:8

In the moments we don’t have the answers, focusing on whatever is true, pure, lovely and admirable can give us focus and wisdom for the answer to come.

The Salvation Army Canada has updated their core values for this New Year as a way of answering the question of what we are to put our focus on and how we are to operate. These values: Hope, Service, Dignity and Stewardship, are easy to remember and summarize everything we seek to do at THHS, and across Canada.

We join them in the focus to give hope, providing service without discrimination, offering dignity and ensuring wise stewardship of resources.

Focusing on our values and our mission will help us to answer some of the tough questions we face every day, both internally and externally.

So as we re-focus in this New Year, let’s continue to strive to be “The Hand of God in the Heart of the City.”

Grace & Peace,
Erin