Lent Week One - ASSURANCE

by Katherine Ruhle

This week marks the beginning of Lent and the beginning of a new series – RENEWAL: God’s Story, Our Story. Over seven weeks, we’ll reflect on God’s ongoing story of renewal for the whole of creation, and how our story weaves and intertwines with God’s story. During this series, we’ll journey with people from past generations and hear stories of how God renewed their lives through transforming encounters, forgiveness, reconciliation, and faithfulness.  Along the way, we’ll reflect on how God is renewing our lives, and our Church, and what God is calling us to do in the renewal process.

To start the series, we are going to focus on the word ‘assurance’. I wonder what images, memories, thoughts, and feelings come to your mind when you hear the word ‘assurance’.

As I think about assurance, I remember a time when someone spoke with assurance to me.

Twelve years ago, something strange happened to my knee which caused it to stop bending and left me with extreme pain.  One day, after four weeks of hospital care, a surgeon walked into my room and told me very matter-of-factly that I had something called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and that my knee problems were basically ‘in my head’. The surgeon told me to go home and read about it and that there wasn’t anything more he could do to help me.  I was shocked!  How could this extreme pain be in my head? How could my un-bendable knee be all in my head? How could there be so little hope?

Thankfully, I didn’t have a chance to wallow in the news. As soon as the surgeon left, a physiotherapist who had been in the room spoke to me with assurance.  She said clearly, “Don’t go home and look up CRPS. You will only read about horror stories.  You are young, you are fit, you are healthy, you are resilient. We can come up with a plan to support you so that you have positive outcomes.” She then gave me websites filled with proactive therapy ideas and good news stories, and she organised a plan of action for my recovery.

At that difficult time, I needed assurance. Assurance to know there was hope.  Assurance to give me confidence to tackle the challenges ahead of me. Assurance to know that I wasn’t alone.  And that assurance made a massive difference to my ‘knee’ journey and outcomes.

Throughout the Bible, and in this week’s lectionary readings, we hear many assurances that God is present, that God is at work, that God has a plan, and that God loves all people, despite our failings.  These assurances can give us hope and confidence.  These assurances let us know that we are not alone on the journey. And these assurances can motivate us as we think about what renewal means for our Church and our lives.

PS. Of course, I did look up CRPS and it was awful! Thankfully, the physiotherapist’s words of assurance meant more than the words on the CRPS webpages. And today, after lots of hard work, I’m climbing mountains, dancing, and living a pain-free life.

Questions to think about:

Which of God’s assurances are most meaningful for you?

What is something that happened in your past that gives you assurance for the future?

As you think about the renewal of the Church, what assures you?