When the “handwriting on the wall” for my departure from my previous pastorate couldn’t be more clear, one of my friends said to me, “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back”. Days later, I resigned – and that friend has barely spoken to me since. Then last New Year’s, another friend wrote to me something similar: “I will fully support you in 2015.” I haven’t heard a word from him in more than six months.
No, I’m not trying to drum up any old and raw sympathetic “Woe is me!” emotions. I’m simply making the point that people, even close friends will disappoint us at times. Yea it hurts; and we feel a sense of betrayal. But people are still people and will do what people naturally do – they fail, and they fail one another. And I’m quite sure there been several times when I’ve played the failure. I didn’t have my friends’ backs.
But there is One Who never fails us; and I was reminded of this every time I walked out of the house in which I grew up. Above our front door on the inside hung a plaque with but three simple, yet consoling words, “Jesus Never Fails”. What better words when stepping out into the hostile and unforgiving world where even friends will fail us, but Jesus never!
Why not come this Sunday to hear more about this comfort, that if God has our back, then we can face anything the world hurls at us.
