What do you think of when you hear the word neighborhood? Maybe something nostalgic, like Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood—an ideal community where everyone works together, differences are celebrated, and kindness is the norm. But for many, reality looks quite different. Broken homes, isolation, division. Most people today don’t even know their neighbors.
In today’s world, neighborhoods have become places of separation rather than connection. People live next to each other for years without ever really knowing one another. But Jesus calls us to more than just coexisting—He calls us to love our neighbors.
Try this exercise: Fill out a simple map of your neighborhood and answer the following questions about those around you:
Names – Can you name the people in the houses around you?
Basic details – Do you know anything about their lives, such as their families or jobs?
Deeper knowledge – Have you had conversations where you’ve learned about their passions, struggles, or faith?
The reality is:
Only 10% of people can name all their neighbors.
About 3% can share personal details about them.
Less than 1% know their neighbors’ hopes, dreams, and struggles.
Why is this? In America, we are an individualistic society, prioritizing personal space over community. In contrast, many cultures around the world value collectivism—caring for and supporting one another as a way of life. But God designed us for community. In Genesis, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” The early church in Acts reflected this deep sense of togetherness, meeting each other’s needs and living in true spiritual family.
Until we receive new eyes, we cannot truly see our neighbors. Until we receive a heart transplant, we cannot truly love them.
Seeing Your Community Through God’s Eyes
Do we see our city, our neighborhood, and our neighbors as God does? Or do we, like Nathanael in John 1:46, say, “Can anything good come from there?”—writing off our community because of its struggles?
Bradford, PA—like many communities—faces real challenges:
High rates of drug overdoses and opioid addiction.
Increased mental health struggles, with 47% of adults diagnosed.
28.4% of residents living in poverty—significantly above the national average.
Housing and unemployment issues that leave many struggling.
But God has a dream for our city. A dream of healing, transformation, and restored families. A vision of neighbors truly knowing and loving one another.
Jesus’ Command to Love Our Neighbors
When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered:
Luke 10:27 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”
He followed this with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, teaching that being a neighbor is not about proximity—it’s about action. It’s about seeing people, caring for them, and meeting their needs.
How to Start a Neighboring Movement
See Your Neighbors – Look at your community with fresh eyes. Who lives near you? What are their stories? Make eye contact, smile, and start noticing them.
Accept That God Placed You Here for a Reason – Stop wishing you lived somewhere else or that your neighbors were different. You are here on purpose. God put you in this place for a mission.
Pray for Your Neighbors – Set a daily reminder to pray for those around you. Ask God to give you a heart for them, to love and understand them better.
Build Relationships Through Simple Acts – Love starts small.
Learn and use your neighbors’ names.
Offer help when you see a need.
Spend time outside, being available for conversation.
Invite them over for coffee or a meal.
Ask God for a Heart Transplant – Lay down the self-centeredness that says, “I don’t need anyone else.” Ask God to replace it with a heart that longs to love and serve others.
It’s Time to Move Into the Neighborhood
Jesus didn’t just love from a distance—He moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”
It’s time for us to do the same. Who is God calling you to truly SEE this week?
Today we are looking at The Art of Serving Together. We know and have heard of the importance of serving, but serving together invites people into a relational environment where they can belong so that they may see and feel the Gospel being lived out. A special bond is formed when you pursue a common cause with someone.
“Today’s typical outsiders aren’t likely to be reached through persuasive argument but instead through first experiencing an authentic Christian: someone who is willing to roll up his or her sleeves and restore alongside them.” – Gabe Lyons
There’s a saying that goes, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” When Jesus fed the 5,000 in John 6, He asked the disciples to feed the crowds. Then He proceeded to take what they gave Him and showed them how to feed them by faith. They served the people together.
Scripture describes the followers of Jesus as “living stones” with which the Kingdom of God will be built. (1 Peter 2:5) Going out to serve among and with the people of our communities gives us a great opportunity to be living stones. When we communicate God’s personal love and care for people, our message resonates with authenticity.
Things to Consider When Serving Together
Choose the Right Opportunity – Don’t just identify needs to fill, but discover what people are passionate about. You want them to want to join you in the work, not just watch you serve.
Make an Invitation – Build a bridge of relationship by practicing the former arts of spiritual conversations. Pray first, make it clear what you will be doing together, and make it fun! Allow them to respond—don’t say their ‘No’ for them.
Prepare – Start with prayer. Ask God to open doors and grow the seeds you are planting. Be prepared for the task: get permission from those you are going to serve, and have all the needed supplies ready.
Compelling Service – Be a good example of service. Work hard without complaining. Let them wonder why you are doing this. Let your actions do more talking than your words.
Gentle Answers – When you do answer their questions that come while serving, remember what your relationship with God means to you and why your service is an outflow of that relationship. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to “be prepared to give an answer” about the hope we have in Jesus. Be ready.
Service: Living Out Our Faith
One of our core values as a church is Action: Sacrificial Service to Others.
I heard recently that Francis Chan shared this when speaking at a large conference:
“How many would go on missions wherever God sends you for the Gospel?”(Many raised their hands.) “I was afraid you’d say that… you won’t even walk across the street to your neighbors.”
Isn’t that the truth? Unfortunately, we tend to seek out the “big things” to do for God as our calling or our duty, rather than being the one who will offer to babysit for a neighbor or take a meal to a friend.
Listen to this message on Serving today and reflect on what God is saying to you: Listen Here
We are well into our 40 Days of Sharing commitment now. Most definitely, this has required a great deal of sacrificial service from us all as a church. Can we count the cost of what this means for us? And then ask Him to fill us for His service.
Galatians 6:9 (NIV) “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I’m praying that you find opportunities to serve together with someone you are trying to reach with the Gospel this week. Be Salt and Light to your neighbors!
As we continue our 40 Days of Sharing, we shift our focus to the heart of Jesus’ mission: Loving Our Neighbors. This week, we explore The Art of Loving and The Art of Welcoming—two essential practices that allow us to embody Christ’s love in our relationships and communities.
Love is to be the basis of our efforts of sharing Jesus with anyone. If we do not love when we Notice (Art 1), Pray (Art 2), Listen (Art 3), and Ask Questions (Art 4), then our attempts will fail. We cannot learn any of the other Arts to build relationships in which we are attempting to lead someone into the Faith. From our message on Sunday, when God’s love has been poured into us, it overflows into the lives of everyone around us. When we have experienced His love, we are motivated to spread it in tangible ways to people in our world who are burdened with guilt and judgment, without God and without hope.
1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
When we have learned the love of God, we begin to increasingly love what He loves—which is people. Both those who are near to Him and those who are far from Him. For that reason, Love initiates and pursues those who are hurting or different from us. We reach out, take the first step, don’t avoid, and don’t condemn.
How do we show the heart of God’s love in our interactions with those who are hurting?
Listen—we can give the hurting the ministry of our presence.
Gentle words—acknowledge their pain is real and give them permission to grieve and heal.
Don’t offer pat answers—if you use scripture or Christian sayings, make sure it’s from the heart and appropriate to share in their context.
Show up—be faithful in showing up in their life, be the one they can count on to be there.
Look to Jesus—ask the Holy Spirit to help you know what to say, and when you don’t, point them to Jesus.
God loves people extravagantly—do we?
The Art of Welcoming
Our God is a welcoming God, constantly pursuing, seeking, and inviting people into His loving community. When we welcome someone, it is bringing them from being a vulnerable outsider to being connected with others. Welcoming is so much more than entertaining or asking people to come to us. We can have a welcoming presence wherever we go! It’s all in our intention and our attitude.
The ingredients to creating a welcoming environment include: honesty, authenticity, common interests, a flexible plan, food that is generously shared, good conversation, genuine listening, empathy, fun, and humor. We see all of these qualities in Jesus as He interacted with His followers.
Luke 15:1-2 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
He wants us to do the same. We can do this by looking at four aspects of Welcoming:
Your Face – Ever heard the saying, “Are you happy? Then tell it to your face.” Many times we can have things on our minds that have nothing to do with the people around us, but it affects our countenance. We can look angry or stern without even realizing we are doing so, projecting the idea that we are not happy to be with them. Being intentional about our facial expressions and how they are communicating a welcoming attitude toward others is important. A smile and warm eye contact go a long way toward helping someone feel welcomed.
Your Space – Some people struggle with relational awkwardness, regardless of whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. How open and comfortable are you around others? Do you try to make others feel at ease around you? Try to find common ground—this will help both you and others loosen up and feel comfortable in your interactions.
Your Place – Where you welcome others and the condition of the space matters. We’re not talking about the level of cleanliness or the appearance of the space, but is it warm and inviting? Sometimes a spotless or high-end home, car, or office can make people feel intimidated or uncomfortable. But likewise, so can a filthy and disorganized space. Think of a place where you feel relaxed and accepted. What can you do to create the kind of atmosphere where others feel comfortable and welcomed?
Your Grace – Are we able to extend grace to others? When we strive to be a person that is safe, that accepts them as they are, we create an environment of grace. That environment of grace leads to transparent sharing and vulnerability, which can lead to more opportunities to share our faith in the context of relationships. Welcoming grace is being willing to admit we don’t have all the answers and that life can be messy, but that we come to Jesus for the answers together.
No matter where we are or where we go, we can create a welcoming atmosphere of God’s love. How are you going to go out and welcome others today?
Before we begin this testimony, I ask you an extremely important question: is there meaning in art without its artist?
It may be an odd question at first, but for a young writer like myself, answering this question is necessary to understand why and for whom I write. So, please, reflect upon it and think carefully. It is important that you have an answer before reading what I have to say, so please pause for a few seconds and think.
Well, now that you have an answer – or perhaps a line of thought – it is crucial to state that art does not belong to anyone, not even its artist. When you read a book, your first thought is never that it is a particular vision of an author, that all of that story is merely a testimony of an artist. Your first thought, your intuition, is always that in some way that story belongs to you – it tells you something that burns in your own blood.
What I mean is: good art belongs to everyone, not to its artist or audience, not to its country or culture, but to all.
How Knowing the Artist Changes the Art
On the other hand, knowing the story of the author is necessary to understand where lies his inspiration, and this somehow changes the whole book. An interesting example is my favorite writer, J. R. R. Tolkien – yes, I like medieval battles and green orcs. If you are a lover of his work, you know that he is a Christian and that his fictional world is based on such a perspective.
However, did you know that Tolkien was also inspired by pagan Norse mythology? That Gandalf the Grey is inspired by the figure of Odin? I ask you, does this piece of information change your perspective on his work, even by a little?
Whether it’s Tolkien’s writings or Michelangelo’s sculptures, every artwork that survives the shackles of time has the mark of its artist, but it belongs to everyone.
Can We Find the Hand of a Creator in Everything?
What would become of The Lord of the Rings if the book stayed on a shelf, never in bookstores? What would become of Pieta or David if these statues were in a basement, never in museums? Valuable art belongs to us all; however, art still bears the mark of an artist who only sought to express himself.
What is the answer to this big question?
Let’s observe, for example, artists who died thinking that their works were merely some waste of time, such as the famous writer Franz Kafka. After his death, his books such as Letter to his Father and Metamorphosis became a hit around the world, some of the finest pieces of literature ever produced. Would it be that the success of these works is attributed to our research about Kafka’s life? Or are these books simply great by themselves? What I am trying to say is – would these works be famous if we did not know who Kafka was?
Let’s put this question on a pause for a second.
Let’s instead look at the art that surrounds us all. Can you find art in everything? Clearly, you look at a clock and do not think it simply “fell out of the sky”, as a clock has several complex and precise parts that work together so that the object serves its specific purpose: to mark the time. The clock is a fine piece of art due to its complexity, and I believe that we can all agree with this statement.
On the other hand, you probably look at a stone and think that it is just a stone – after all, it is abundant and simple.
However, if you were to pay closer attention to the molecular structure of a stone, how it has probably been here on this earth for thousands of years, how it can have hundreds of thousands of different uses… if you were to analyze a stone from the perspective of its artist, as something extremely complex, you would realize that everything around you is extremely complex, and that everything has the mark of its artist. If you understood for one second how everything around you is an art precisely calculated with hundreds of millions of variables that need to come together simultaneously for that stone to be in front of you in that same place and at that same moment, you would probably be amazed by its artist.
However, since you do not care about a stone, you probably do not care by its artist – and why should you?
.
Now, coming back to that question:
is there meaning in art without its artist?
There are two possible practical answers in my view.
The first, you can experience art as if it belongs to you, live a lifetime without even asking what was the artist’s purpose, or who the artist even is.
Basically, you can limit the artist to your own inability to understand him, or your unwillingness to appreciate his art.
The second, the one that seems more coherent to me: simply wanting to understand the artist. What is the purpose of his magnificent work? What was his inspiration?
Why did he share his art with us? Are we part of his art, or just an accident in the middle of his artistic process?
A Personal Testimony: From Rio de Janeiro to Faith
I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived 18 years of my life there. Yes, I like football – I do not shy away from the stereotype.
No, it is called football, not soccer. Yes, it is always hot there and the beaches are wonderful – if you want to visit, just be careful where you go.
I was born to a Jewish mother and an atheist father, and at the age of 4 my parents got a divorce. I am the older brother of three, all male. If you are or want to be a parent of a large family, please make sure you raise children of different sexes – four men is not easy for any parent or sibling.
My father taught me to love art since I was little, and so I have always been very connected to books and movies. My mother taught me to love my family, and despite all the fights with my siblings, we all developed an extremely special feeling for each other.
Encountering Christianity Through Literature
Despite all the family and cultural upbringing, all the character and personality mold, I had never had any contact with spirituality or religiosity. I had my Bar Mitzvah like any Jewish male at the age of 13, and I also occasionally participated in the Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, among other festivities. However, I had never had a truly religious education at home or at school – Judaism for me was reduced to cultural rather than spiritual practices.
Until I was 22 years old, I had never prayed or set foot in a church or synagogue in order to truly worship God.
I came to the United States with a dream of becoming a writer. I told myself that I wanted to tell people about the “truth of things”, to teach them through inspiring stories how to become better people. Well, I soon understood that not only did I not know the “truth of things” but also that I was just a boy who simply wanted to be heard and respected for his opinions – the reason for my writing was never to help the world, only myself.
These moments of reality shock are crucial to shaping humility, and so I seek to continue to learn that I will never know much, and that the little I know does not make me superior to those who know as little as I do.
Humility! Such a simple word, but very, very complex. As you will see, I never had much humility.
Finding the Artist Behind Life
Anyway, as the writing and literature classes at the university went by, I came across questions like the one that started this testimony – questions that have no ultimate answer, just personal answers. I came across spectacular books that simply showed me the soul of an author who, regardless of age, was as simple as me: someone who had no answer to anything, just views. This simplicity brought me closer to artists, and so I tried to follow in their footsteps – that was the worst choice of my life, I came to understand.
Looking back now, I understand it was necessary, but definitely I could have learned my lesson in a simpler way if I merely spontaneously learned how to be humble. Well, that never happened.
To become a successful writer, I thought, I had to follow two simple steps.
First, I needed to isolate myself from the world and focus on those questions that no one knew how to answer.Thus, I almost did not see or talk to anyone for years. I truly did not worry about my physical or mental health – these were all obstacles in my way. All I did was read and write, philosophize and seek understanding.
Secondly, I needed to become extremely observant, a narrator rather than a character. Thus, I did not seek to have experiences, but to observe others in order to try to better understand how other people behave and feel – their motivations, passions, and pains.
After a few years of living this way, I was faced with the following reality. I no longer enjoyed spending my time with others. I did not want to meet new people nor seek much from my friends and family. Everything and everyone became so, so distant from my reality that I could not understand them anymore, and I did not want to understand them anymore. Humanity seemed lost to me – everything indicated that there was no purpose to our mediocre existence.
This is the most logical conclusion one can reach once one truly distances oneself from people – nothing makes sense, and nothing should make sense. I simply could not understand how people were not like me, and if they were not, that meant they were somehow intellectually dishonest with themselves – and there was nothing that raged me as much as intellectual dishonesty.
Well, I learned a few “truths” once I came out of this experience, and one of them is that the path to hopelessness is extremely comfortable. Once your eyes see what you want to see, and people become mere accidents and feelings mere obstacles, you do not hurt as much anymore. It is a constant process of distancing oneself from the pain that, although painful, is comfortable.
Those who loved me were constantly worried about me, but I was worried about them for still living in an extremely cruel and corrupt world. My world could forever be to read and write, and that would be a perfect world, even if no one liked my art. After all, I no longer wanted people to like anything I wrote, because I did not like them anymore. I felt sorry for them for being so blind.
Gabriel Asks: What is the Value of Life?
About a year ago, I took a class on literature in the medieval age, and I needed to read a
100-page “poem” called Pearl. There is no reason to summarize the work, but the following question appeared in my mind once I was finished with it: what is the value of life?
The book is according to the Christian perspective, and through these lenses children go to Heaven. If a child dies, he goes directly to Heaven. However, if a child lives and becomes an adult, regardless of that individual’s life, Heaven is no longer a guarantee. Such a person, after all, will not be perfect, and so will not go to heaven without believing in Jesus Christ. A child, on the other hand, is still perfect in his or her purity, and so go to Heaven. Therefore, I asked myself: why live?
Why live if you could have died at the age of 2 and gone directly to eternal life alongside your creator? It did not make any sense. Life was reduced to a “test” or “trial” rather than being a gift.
You see, I was not a Christian and had never picked up a Bible in my life. For a lover of
unanswered questions, this was something that intrigued me for a long time, and really it appeared to make no logical sense. Sure, I knew about the story of the garden of Eden, about how sin entered into the world, but the question still lingered in my mind: why live? So, again I ask you, before you continue reading, try answering the following question. Why do we live since if we died as children we would go directly to heaven – why grow up and be susceptible to sin? Reflect upon it, think carefully. I will not touch on this subject exactly next, but it is important that you have an answer before you read on.
After some time, that became a question that motivated me to understand the Christian perspective upon life more deeply.
Finding God in The Bible
With the influence of that question and my lovely girlfriend Katherine – please know that you changed my life, my love, and I am forever grateful – I enrolled in a class called “Bible as Literature”. We had no Christian teachings, nor did we seek to answer any questions about the existence of God. The goal of the class was simply to read the Bible as a story and understand how it influenced literature. So yes, I had to read almost the entire Bible in less than four months.
For every class, we needed to make comments on some topic that we found interesting about the reading for the day (which was usually between 12 and 16 chapters). Despite all the “homework” we had to do, it was extremely interesting to dedicate myself to reading the Bible every day, to seek to better understand its metaphors, its teachings, and its connections, alongside the whole of its beautiful story. I knew it would be fascinating, but I had no idea that I would question whether the Bible was really divine or worldly. For those who have never read the Bible and think that what I just said is absurd, please let me give you some context to my statement.
The Bible has approximately 66 thousand cross-connections throughout its books – these connections are established through prophecies that appear elsewhere in the story, or details that are once mentioned that come to light in the future of the work.
The second collection of books with as many cross-connections are all of the works of Stephen King combined, which total somewhere between 1 and 1.2 thousand connections. The Bible was written in 3 different languages by more than 40 authors, and for some reason it retains its original content even after 2,000 years. Many of the books that make up the Bible are based on an oral tradition that remained alive for thousands of years before being placed in its first manuscripts, mere pieces of paper that tell us about more than fifteen hundred years of a people’s history. If this information is not enough to make you question whether the Bible is not a miracle in itself, then try to read its contents and answer the thousands of theological questions that to this day are topics of discussion for philosophers, physicists, scientists, and some of the most talented scholars from around the world. Perhaps, try to understand the messages that have shaped the ethics and morals that are still prevalent in the vast majority of the world’s most developed countries. In short, there is no collection of books as frighteningly complex as the Bible, and for some reason its story opens and closes perfectly, without leaving a comma out of place.
I do not need to tell you about the Bible, its impact speaks for itself. All I need to say is that I tried to see how it could simply be the making of men, and failed.
I was extremely frightened when I did not find any piece of archaeological evidence that proved to me that the events of the Bible were wrong. Obviously, no one can prove whether or not Moses parted the red sea because no one can go back in time to see the sea splitting right in the middle. However, all the pieces of Egyptian chariots, Egyptian armor, and human bones that were found at the bottom of the Red Sea, in addition to the massively large burned area of sand – which has originated from such a potent fire that civilizations at the time did not even dream of ever being able to manipulate – lead me to believe that the Red Sea was really opened and a pillar of fire really fell from the skies. Yes, it is indeed absurd to philosophize whether fiction exists in real life – but it is even more absurd to deny its existence when faced with evidence.
And I tell you, search for the evidence, because it is the way, the truth, and the life.
I have converted to Christianity about 6 months ago.
I like to tell others that I was converted by my pursuit of knowledge and reason, but the plain truth is that once I read the Bible and sought to understand what it said, I began to see things differently.
Many say that books change your life – I cannot believe it. I do not think that books change your life unless you want to change your life, allow yourself to see the artist.
If you read a book and do not get to know its author, that book will not change your life, since you will never truly know that book. Thus, I sought to know the artist behind all, and until the end of my life, I will continue to seek Him.
With a single stone, I was able to hit two birds. With a single sentence, I was able to answer both of my unanswerable questions.
Is there meaning in art without its artist?
What is the value of life?
Life is but a constant quest to know the artist behind life. And that is my testimony.
About the Author
Gabriel Lyra is an international student from Brazil studying literature at the University of Pittsburgh. When visiting Bradford, PA, he attends Open Arms Community Church and the Sunday Dinner Microchurch. His passion for writing, philosophy, and faith has led him on a journey of deep discovery, both in literature and in life.
Maybe you found this because you typed something into Google like:
Why do I feel so lost?
How do I get out of this dark place?
Is there any hope for me?
If that’s the case, I want to tell you something upfront: You are not alone.
A lot of us—more than we’d like to admit—have felt this way. We don’t talk about it, though. We just keep moving, pushing through, acting like it’s all okay while the weight of it presses down harder every day.
Hopelessness isn’t just a modern struggle. It’s something humanity has always wrestled with. Even the Bible captures the depths of despair that people have felt since the dawn of time.
God Understands Your Suffering
Isaiah 53:3 says: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”
This verse is a prophetic verse that was written before Jesus was born, but is talking about Jesus Himself. He knows what it’s like to suffer. He knows what it’s like to feel rejected, alone, and completely abandoned. Whatever you’re feeling right now, He understands.
When we read about Jesus in the Gospels, we do see Jesus faced with human emotion, including grief, distress, and fatigue. The Bible says that He was tempted in every way that we are, and I’m sure that He felt the feelings that we have felt. He knows. And He CARES.
In Psalm 88:3-4, the writer cries out: “I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength.”
Have you ever felt that way? Like you’re just barely holding on? Like no matter what you do, the weight of everything is too much?
You’re not the first to feel that. You’re not the only one. Even those closest to God have felt that same crushing darkness. But here’s what you need to know: darkness is not the end of the story.
What Should I Do If I Feel Hopeless?
You might be asking:
How do I get out of this feeling?
What steps can I take to get my life back?
It starts with admitting that you can’t fix it alone. But you don’t have to—because God is right here, and He cares about you.
1. Ask God for Help
One of the biggest lies we believe when we’re struggling is that God doesn’t care. That He’s distant. That He’s too busy to notice our pain.
But that’s not the truth.
1 Peter 5:7 says: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
God actually invites us to bring our burdens to Him. He’s not afraid of your pain. He’s not overwhelmed by your emotions. He wants to walk through it with you.
What does this look like?
Be honest with God. Tell Him what you’re feeling—even if it’s messy.
Ask Him for strength. Even if you don’t know what to say, just say, “God, help me.”
Don’t stop reaching out. Prayer doesn’t have to be formal—just talk to Him like you would a friend.
Psalm 34:17-18 reminds us: “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
If you feel hopeless, start here. Ask God for help. He hears you. He cares. And He won’t leave you alone in this.
You don’t have to pray a prescribed prayer, or follow a ritual. Just talk to Him like He’s your Dad. Like He’s in the room. He’s not offended by your emotion, your frustration, even if you’re a bit frustrated with Him. You can tell Him about that, and He can take it. But be willing to know the truth about Him, that He loves you, and wants to bring healing to the parts of you that are hurting.
I think of these lyrics from the song “Talkin’ to Jesus” There’s no wrong way to do it
There’s no bad time to start It don’t have to sound pretty Just tell Him what’s on your heart ‘Cause it’s not a religion ‘Cause it’s more like a friendship Just talk to your Father Like you are his kid
2. Be Careful What You Feed Your Mind
Maybe you’re wondering:
Why do I feel so much worse after scrolling through social media?
Does what I watch and listen to actually affect my mood?
The answer is yes.
There’s a phrase in programming: Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you feed a system garbage, it’s going to produce garbage. Your mind works the same way.
It seems like every few years, I got sucked into the political chaos leading up to whichever election is happening. I can find myself reading every article, watching the news, arguing online.
A few years ago I found myself pretty deep down the rabbit hole. I had really let my mind marinate in division, outrage, and hopelessness.
It wrecked me.
Then, as soon as the election was over, I shut it all off. And you know what happened? I felt peace again.
What are you feeding your mind? If it’s constant negativity, anger, and despair—no wonder you feel hopeless.
Philippians 4:8 reminds us: “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.”
It’s time to replace the noise with truth, hope, and life.
It’s really easy for us to blame a condition, rather than to take responsibility.
I’m not saying that mental health diagnoses aren’t real. (We’ll talk about those things in a moment.) But what I am saying is, we need to make sure that we are thoughtful and careful about what we feed our mind AND our bodies, as they do have a direct impact on how we feel.
Are we eating junk? Are we physically active? Taking a walk? Taking a shower? Getting enough sleep? Listening to the most depressing or angry music? Scrolling on social media and listening to influencers show us how we don’t measure up? Watching the news while it loops through its cycle of outrage and despair?
3. Call in the Pros
If you broke your leg, you wouldn’t just tell yourself to “walk it off.” You’d go see a doctor. But when our mental and emotional health is broken, we tell ourselves to just “push through.”
That’s a lie. Sometimes, you need help.
There is no shame in talking to a counselor, seeing a doctor, or even taking medication if that’s what helps you get back on solid ground. Some of the strongest people you know have done the same thing—you just don’t see it because they don’t talk about it.
If you’re in a dark place right now, reach out. There are people who want to help.
📞 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 📞 Mental Health Treatment Referral Hotline: 1-877-726-4727
Even the Bible encourages seeking wise counsel. Proverbs 11:14 says: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”
You don’t have to do this alone.
How Can I Heal from Past Wounds?
Maybe your hopelessness isn’t just about what’s happening right now. Maybe it’s been years in the making.
I didn’t realize how much my past was affecting me until I faced it head-on.
I was in kindergarten at the bus stop. Just a few weeks after school started. Two teenage brothers stood behind me. They stole my hat and threw it on top of a soda machine. Then, they pulled out a little box of matches.
Flick. Hushed laughter. SSSSST!
They put out the match on my neck. Then they did it again. Not just once, but several times over the next week. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t move. I didn’t scream. I just let it happen. I was scared. I was angry. But I also felt like it was my problem.
I had no idea how much that experience shaped me. There are so many lies that I believed about myself and carried with me throughout my childhood and into my adulthood because of what those other boys did at the bus stop. There are actually many experiences in my early life that compounded on top of each other to really create a whirlwind of lies and wounds that I’m frequently taking to my Heavenly Father for healing so that I can learn and grow.
I know folks who say, “When I gave my life to Jesus, He just took all that away in an instant!”
And I’m in no position to argue with their experience. I just know for me, He certainly forgave my sin, redeemed my soul, and gave me a new life, adopted me into His family, and radically changed me when I submitted my life to Him… but it has taken me years to allow Him into the parts of my mind and heart that I didn’t even know were broken and hurting! Jesus and I are walking out a very long and patient journey of healing my deep hurts, and replacing the lies left in the wake of those hurts with His truth.
What lies are you still believing from your past?
Jesus offers healing. Psalm 147:3 says: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
He can do that for you, too.
Let God Heal the Broken Places in You
Sometimes, the wounds of our past keep us trapped in hopelessness. We try to move forward, but the pain lingers. The truth is, we can’t fully step into freedom until we invite God into those broken places—to heal, restore, and set us free.
In December 2023, Eric Eliason preached a powerful message at Open Arms Community Church called “Set the Captives Free.” In this sermon, he talks about how God wants to heal our past wounds so we can walk in true freedom.
If you’re struggling with hurt, trauma, or burdens from your past, this message is for you. Take a moment to watch it—and invite God to bring healing where you need it most.
When you’re struggling, it’s easy to feel like God is distant—or worse, that He doesn’t care. Maybe you’ve prayed before and nothing seemed to change. Maybe people told you to “just have more faith,” and it didn’t help.
But faith is not about pretending everything is fine. It’s about trusting God in the middle of the mess.
Jesus Understands Your Pain
If you’ve ever felt completely alone in your suffering, I want you to know Jesus understands exactly what that feels like.
Jesus, the Son of God, went through deep emotional and physical pain. He knows what it’s like to feel crushed, rejected, and in agony. You are not alone in this.
Isaiah 53:4-5 says: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering… But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Jesus took all of our pain, all of our suffering, and all of our brokenness upon Himself. He didn’t just come to teach us how to live—He came to rescue us from the darkness.
God is the Source of Real Hope
Faith doesn’t mean you’ll never struggle. It doesn’t mean every bad feeling instantly disappears. But faith gives you something solid to stand on when everything else feels like it’s falling apart.
Romans 15:13 says: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Real hope isn’t about wishful thinking. It’s about knowing that God is still in control, even when life feels overwhelming.
Hope says: “This pain is real, but it is not permanent.”
Hope says: “God has not forgotten me, even when I feel invisible.”
Hope says: “God can turn this mess into something beautiful.”
What Does This Mean for You?
If you’re in a dark place, here’s what I want you to know:
1️⃣ You don’t have to fix yourself before coming to God. He meets you right where you are. 2️⃣ You can be honest with God. If you’re angry, confused, or struggling—tell Him. He already knows, and He wants to walk with you through it. 3️⃣ You don’t have to do this alone. God designed us for community. Surround yourself with people who will encourage and pray for you.
Psalm 40:1-2 says: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
No matter how deep the pit feels, God is strong enough to pull you out.
Jesus is not afraid of your darkness. He is the light. And He wants to lead you out of it.
Want to Go Deeper? Watch Our Sermon Series on Overcoming Depression
If you’re struggling with depression, despair, or feelings of hopelessness, you’re not alone—and you don’t have to fight this battle alone.
Back in 2014, Pastor Mike McAvoy led a powerful sermon series at Open Arms Community Church called “Defeating the Dragon of Depression and Despair.” In this series, he dives deep into the spiritual, emotional, and practical aspects of overcoming depression, offering biblical wisdom and real hope.
We encourage you to take some time to watch these messages and let God’s truth replace the lies of hopelessness.
1️⃣ Ask God for help. He hears you and cares for you. 2️⃣ Take inventory of what you’re feeding your mind. Start replacing negativity with hope. 3️⃣ Reach out for help. A friend, a pastor, a counselor—don’t keep this to yourself.
Join Us for Prayer on Monday Night
If you need hope, if you need someone to pray for you, if you just need to be in a place where you’re not alone—join us at Open Arms Community Church for our Monday Night Prayer Meeting. No pressure, no judgment. Just a time to seek peace and healing together.
As we continue our 40 Days of Sharing, we move from Noticing and Praying into the next crucial step: Listening and Asking Questions. Engaging in spiritual conversations starts with truly hearing people and seeking to understand their hearts.
Proverbs 18:13 – To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.
How many times have we done this—answered someone before actually listening to them? I have been guilty of this. Or maybe while we are “listening” to them, we are actually formulating our highly prepared biblical responses. All the while, not actually hearing anything they said. The questions behind their questions. What may be really going on in their heart.
We can only come to this place of really hearing someone when we have prepared our hearts to lay aside our agenda and really receive what someone is saying—listen to them. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone is a part of God’s story.
Many of us can feel uncomfortable with silence or doubt. We can feel uneasy around unanswered spiritual questions, especially if we don’t feel like we’re prepared to give them a good enough answer. But a good listener can handle unresolved emotion or unanswered questions. Sometimes we can feel confident to leave them in God’s hands and trust that His truth will be revealed to them in His timing.
When we surrender our desire to be the expert and our need to resolve differences immediately, we’ll see barriers to listening dissolve. A part of our spiritual journey is discovery, and this requires patience to allow that discovery to unfold for others, and to not interrupt this process.
Also, it’s important for us to know that many times people don’t want our answers; what they really want is a friend.
Listening requires putting others first. We see this in Jesus when He interacted with people. He listened, and then usually He asked questions later. Listening is love. We are seeking to understand the other person, rather than insisting they understand us.
We can begin to learn to be Reflective Listeners. We reflect the person’s words back to them to ensure we are understanding what they are saying. And once they feel heard, we can then ask follow-up questions.
“I think I hear you saying…”
“Tell me more…”
We become curious about the person and let go of our need to control the outcome of the conversation.
The Art of Asking Questions
You may not think this is an art, but it requires us to get out of our own experience and to begin to be curious about another’s experience. This art invites you to directly engage with another person and create an environment for meaningful conversation. Curiosity moves us from our last art of Listening to Asking Questions and fully engaging. When we care about a person, we are motivated to know more, understand better, and explore deeper.
The key is also being sensitive to God’s timing for beginning to ask questions. If we rush in and interrogate someone insensitively, we run the risk of killing the conversation—and the relationship. Curiosity focuses our attention on someone else, not just ourselves or our agendas. Good questions are open-ended, concise, and help people to feel safe and understood.
Some simple questions to approach others with:
History: “Where are you from?” “What is your faith background?”
Transitions: “Where are you now?” “What’s been going on in your life lately?”
Principles: “How did you get here?” “Why did you go into this line of work?” “Who do you count on for spiritual advice?”
Goals: “Where are you going?” “What would you like your faith to look like?” “What do you think about life after death?”
Notice that there is a progression to these questions. If you go up to a stranger and ask them a question on their goals, “Where will you go when you die?”, chances are you will come off as rude and a religious nut. But as you build relational trust and move from questions of History, through Transitions and Principles, over time, you can get to the questions that lead them deeper into the goals they may have for their faith. Connection builds trust, and trust is the bridge that can bear the weight of truth.
And pay attention to their answers. Questions help to uncover people’s hearts and expose the things that stand between them and God. What their responses will reveal will be the material that we use to begin to explore the answers that they are seeking together. It is an opportunity to not have all the answers, but to point them to the One who does.
What are some simple questions that you have asked those you are sharing with this week?
Share their responses and let’s pray together for the fruit of those conversations to grow into faith!
During this season of Lent, we are focusing on 40 Days of Sharing—learning how to engage in spiritual conversations and share our faith with others. As we prepare our hearts for this journey, we begin with The Art of Noticing and The Art of Praying.
The Art of Noticing
During these 40 Days of Sharing, we will be exploring the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations from the book by that name by Schaller and Crilly. These 9 Arts are based on the way that Jesus interacted and ministered to others. Before we plunge out into our neighborhood to do the work of sharing our faith with others, we want to start this mission by getting ready and preparing our hearts to serve.
This first begins with the Art of Noticing. We don’t think of noticing others as a big deal, but in this distracted society where most people notice nothing but their cell phones, it takes a great deal of effort to begin noticing those around us.
First we must deal with the barriers that stop us from noticing others:
Pace of Life: Are we too rushed and preoccupied to see others?
Self-Focus: Are we too focused on ourselves and our problems to see those of others?
Christian Bubble: Are we so involved with our church and our Christian friends that we are no longer around those who still need Jesus?
Attitude: Are we being judgmental of others that we don’t know?
Matthew 9:36-38 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
Jesus noticed the people and had compassion for them. And that moved Him to action.
“Noticing people can move us to compassion and action as it humanizes the nameless faces around us. People become real to us, with real lives and real problems in need of a real Savior.” – 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversationspg. 45
“If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors.” – Frederick Buechner
We don’t just stop at noticing others though. Noticing others opens the door to relationships and the Gospel message.
We can practice the Art of Noticing by beginning with these 3 practices:
Pay attention: Choose to focus on someone long enough to wonder about them.
Secret prayer: Send up a silent prayer for the person and what you have noticed about their life.
Genuine listening: Look the person in the eye, ask them “How are you?”, and then listen to them.
People become surprisingly open when they sense that you care and that you are really listening to them. Genuine listening opens the possibility of entering into an authentic conversation in which we allow God to control the outcome.
The Art of Praying
We begin the Art of Praying by taking inventory of who is in our circles of influence. Start with your family. How many people in your family do not know Jesus? Write them down. Then your friends. From distant friends and acquaintances to close friends. How many of them don’t know Jesus? Write their names down. Then your work, how many people there do you know by name? Then your neighborhood. How many people live in your neighborhood? Do you know about their faith?
Many times we can begin to believe that we have no one around us who hasn’t heard the Good News of Jesus. But this simple inventory will show us that indeed, there are many people around us who fit into these categories: spiritually curious, spiritually poor, spiritually blind, spiritually bound, spiritually helpless or hopeless.
Once you have a list of names in all of these categories, now you have a daily prayer list. The Art of Praying does more to change our hearts than it does for them. It increases our trust in God and our love for those who do not have God’s help and hope in their life.
We see this in Jesus in John 17:20-21:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
“Before we can talk to people about God, we need to talk to God about people.” – Rick Richardson
What do we pray for? We can start with these three questions:
God, where are you already at work?
God, what does this person need right now?
God, how can I invite this person to experience Jesus in a fresh way?
God is already present and working in the lives of the people around you. We just need to be brought into what He has been doing so that we can join Him in His work. And pray for others to join you in this work as well! (Luke 10:2)
We can remember the Art of Praying by making our prayers for others:
Personal
Purposeful
A Priority
Take your prayer list that you’ve made and place it somewhere where you’ll remember to pray for them daily. Remember, when we pray for others, we must remember that these are real people, not a project. During these 40 days, these people we share with are not items to cross off of a list, but souls that God’s heart is longing for. Let your prayers for them change you and them today!
I am praying for you as you begin the Art of Noticing and the Art of Praying today! Share with someone how it goes!
Our former Pastor, and the current Superintendent of the Southeast Region of the Free Methodist Church Mike McAvoy, wrote a fantastic article in Light and Life Magazine!
“We find most American Christians have divided loyalties that lead us to live out half-truths and experience far less of the kingdom life described in Scripture and seen in the lives of the many devoted followers throughout history to the present. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both…” (Matthew 6:24).
We know Jesus ended saying “God and money,” but the principle holds true about anything. We cannot serve both God and fill in your competing idol (money, possessions, pleasure, comfort, image, fame, power, success, career, status, ego, independence, rights, preservation, nationalism, politics, family, friends, etc.). As citizens of God’s kingdom, we are not part of a democracy, and we are not living life on our own terms, in this world or the next. Now we are foreigners and live as ambassadors for the kingdom of God wherever we live, work, and play.
I’m not an expert on foreign relations, but these things seem obvious. An ambassador is an officially authorized representative or messenger to a foreign/different culture or country. They are foreigners who are in that specific place on official business to represent another kingdom and its interests. They may enjoy some of the amenities, but they can never forget why they are there. Typically, they have certain diplomatic privileges and rights and delegated authority to act in the interests and work of their kingdom. An ambassador is a temporary assignment.
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“Jesus made it clear that the words He proclaimed and the works He performed were from the Father to accomplish His plan.”
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We see these truths taught throughout the New Testament and modeled by Jesus.”
I know so many who are suffering in grief for lost loved ones. I’ve experienced loss as well, learning at the age of 10 what it meant to lose someone when my baby half-brother passed away from a heart defect he’d had since birth. Even though I was young, I had often babysat him. I knew how to comfort him, how to protect the back of his head, how to warm up his milk, and how to give him his medicine at the right times. I sang songs to him and played with him and loved him deeply.
When my step-mom called our house that day, I answered the phone. She could not think to ask for an adult, and said in all her brokenness, “Misty, Steven is dead.” I’ll never forget those words or the sound of her voice. That was my first introduction to painful loss through death, but it was not the last.
What Is the Relationship Between Love and Grief?
Where love had once filled my heart, grief overtook that space. This is why I believe that the opposite of love is not hate—it is grief. Where love fills, grief leaves empty. Where love consoles, grief torments. Where love heals, grief leaves brokenness. The opposite of love is grief, and no amount of time seems to remove that hurt. I can still think back on those moments of loss, and it will hit me with the same force as if it just happened yesterday.
Why? If time is meant to heal all things, why does grief feel like the exception?
Because love… is the opposite… of grief.
How Does God’s Eternal Love Provide Healing?
Love is the most divine manifestation of God himself, and God is eternal. In that way, love is also timeless. Love is the only force that defies every known law of physics. It is able to expand and endure across all time and distance without being lost or diminished.
When we love, we see the reflection of God in this world. We get a blessed but diluted, earthly glimpse of the awesome, infinite power of God’s love. We hold it for a time, but when it is taken away, we are left with the memory of that power, and we feel to the depths of our soul the gaping hole that remains. There is a never-ending longing in our hearts, crying out to God for the connection we had with Him that has been removed through the loss of that person. The depth of our sorrow is the exact depth of our love—and so it is beautiful. That we feel the loss so deeply means that we loved that intensely.
How Can I Invite God’s Healing Light Into My Heart?
There is no earthly consolation for such a loss. Many stay trapped in this place for the rest of their lives, wishing they could have that love back again. Truly friends, the only power strong enough to heal that hurt is God himself. In moments of grief, we should pray that God comes to place His own light into that empty space. We should recognize that the reflection we saw in others was a beautiful insight into what will be, and God has the ability to fulfill our hearts beyond our wildest understanding if we will only let Him.
Many will rebel at this idea because it feels like a betrayal to the person they loved. They may think that somehow they will forget their loved one if they let God move into that space in their heart. I believe that there is no better way to honor the ones we’ve lost. We were blessed for a time to hold God’s hand, look into His eyes, laugh with Him, travel the Earth with Him, confide in Him, and learn from Him—through the lives of those we’ve loved. You cannot forget those things. The person you loved is not lost in this process of transformation—they are glorified. They are lifted up to the powerful and proper role in your life that they were meant to fulfill… to show you the face of God!
How Can I Find Hope and Peace Amid Grief?
Someday, we will know and experience God’s eternal realm of love without loss, where grief is no longer the price for having loved.
I pray for everyone who struggles with grief. I pray that you will recognize the power of God that was present in that relationship. I pray that you can find peace in knowing that God was there, revealed to you through their lives, and that God is still there, alive in yours.
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13 New Living Translation
Last week, Annette and I were traveling out of town to a doctor’s appointment for our youngest daughter. Halfway through the trip, our two-and-a-half-year-old trusted Jeep made a dinging noise out of the blue. As I looked around trying to figure out what it was, I saw it—the dreaded check engine light! That small orange symbol of a motor on the console.
An Unexpected Warning Sign
I immediately began searching for signs of what might be wrong, making sure it was safe to continue driving. Everything seemed fine, and I didn’t notice any changes in how the Jeep handled or ran. So, we continued our journey and arrived safely at our destination and back home. Thank God! We even drove it the entire week without issues.
However, something unexpected happened. One of our favorite features—the remote start and cold weather package—stopped working! In the middle of winter, this became a major inconvenience. Keep in mind, our Jeep is fairly new, with low mileage (under 30k). We shouldn’t be experiencing problems already, right?
What Happens When We Ignore the Warning?
This experience reminded me of our daily lives and our relationship with Jesus. Especially when we’re new to faith and church life—everything feels fresh, reliable, and exciting. Then, suddenly, the check engine light comes on.
We look around and think, Everything seems okay. I don’t feel any different. What’s going on, Jesus? But He is gently reminding us, Yes, you can keep going, but there are things we need to work on and repair.
Often, we ignore these spiritual warning signs because they don’t seem urgent. Maybe certain conveniences in our faith walk stop working—prayer feels dull, joy fades, or our connection with others weakens. We manage, work around it, and press on. But if we continue ignoring the issue, we might find ourselves completely broken down—stranded and unable to move forward in our faith.
Jesus—Our Lifetime Warranty
This week, I finally scheduled a service appointment for our Jeep. Thankfully, it’s still under warranty, so it shouldn’t cost me anything—just a little time.
The good news is, we too are under warranty! Jesus is our lifetime warranty, and it never expires! The key is to pay attention to the warning signs and address them before they escalate. And just like we need experienced mechanics with the right tools, we need wise counsel—mentors, pastors, and fellow believers—to help us get back on track.
God never intended for us to struggle alone. He calls us to trust Him when the warning light appears. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So, let’s deal with the check engine light today and get back to enjoying the full blessing of our spiritual “remote start.”
😎 Stay blessed and in Him always, Pastor Rich
Pastor Rich Dennison is the Assistant Pastor at Open Arms Community Church. He is one of the leaders of the Least of These Riders Microchurches, a Trainer with Church Development Network, and a worship leader. He’s also a father, grandfather, and avid fisherman.
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