Hearing the Music

What a Story!

Lisa and I are back on American soil and grateful for all your prayers that sustained us during our recent 12 day excursion to Israel. What an incredible blessing it was to immerse ourselves in the Greatest (True) Story that ever played out. A story where a mouse (Israel) prevails despite all the big cats (Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, etc ...) and our King gains his throne by means of a cross. Along the way we revisited parts of the story in wilderness of Sinai, the strongholds of En Gedi, the towns along the Via Maris, the regions around the Sea of Galilee, culminating outside of Jerusalem's old city walls with a cross, and a tomb.

What is amazing among all the ancient ruins and modern reconstruction of Israel is that while you find evidence of the story played out in broken down stones of temples, synagogues, fortresses, and palaces, God is still erecting a lasting monument to King Jesus by means of "Living Stones", including you and me ( cf. I Peter 2:4,5). Herod the Great was truly incredible in putting Judea on the Roman map, but his accomplishments lie in ruins, while the kingdom of King Jesus is growing to this day awaiting its final consummation!

We look forward to sharing more with you as occasion arises. This Sunday we will be jumping back into the story in I Samuel 16. Now that the people's king, Saul, has been rejected, it is time for God's king, David to be anointed. I look forward to diving into it with you again.

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

Given that Pastor Andrew is away in Israel, I have been afforded the opportunity of writing today’s letter. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about myself and some things I have been reflecting on recently.

My name is Zander Hartsuff. I’m going to be a senior at Calvin University this year. In my time at Calvin, I am majoring in Data Science, running on the cross country and track teams, and exploring various other interests such as writing and ministry. I am from a small town called Chelsea, Michigan which is near Ann Arbor. My absolute favorite thing to do is sit down with another person and discuss the important things in life with them. I also love writing fantasy and am currently working on my first book!

A Bible verse that has been on my mind recently is Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” As I look over my life so far it feels like I am constantly sowing but never reaping. I keep casting my bread upon the waters, but it floats off into the unknown, and I keep waiting to find it again. In my waiting it can get very discouraging and feel hopeless at times. When it feels like things just went from bad to worse, I sometimes find myself believing that the bread will never return to me. But in these times I hold fast to this verse and trust that God will provide. And he always does.

This verse has hit me particularly close as a distance runner. Over the past three years I haven’t really gotten any faster and have simply been training continuously without reaping any of the rewards. This is due to several things—mostly injuries, but what I have learned through that experience is that my entire idea of success was built upon how the world defines success and not how God defines it. I now know that it ultimately doesn’t matter how fast I am, only that I use the gifts God has given me and give him all the glory. 

A word of advice from Ray Bradbury: “The things that you do should be things that you love, and the things that you love should be things that you do.”

Photo by Jan-Willem on Unsplash 

Faithful in the Waiting

With Andrew on his way to Israel and Roger preparing to preach this Sunday on 1 Samuel 14, we thought it would be good for me to give you an update on how Jenn and I are adjusting to life in Grand Rapids and ministry at Christ Church. I’m a pastor who enjoys structure and wordplay, so I figured I’d write this using 4 alliterative points:

The Welcome - Jenn and I are so grateful for the way that Christ Church has welcomed us! All of the kindness and encouragement that we experienced during the search process has been on even fuller display as we’ve moved to Michigan and become part of Christ Church. Thank you for all the generous gifts and meals, hospitality in inviting us over, help with moving, and friendship you’ve extended to us. We’ve seen the heart of Christ and the welcome of God so powerfully in this community already and it has been a true blessing.

The Waiting - Theologians like to use the term “already but not yet” to describe our life in the Kingdom of God this side of eternity. It’s the idea that heaven is a confirmed reality for believers that we get to experience glimpses of now while we wait until the day when we will experience it fully. That’s a lot like what the last month and half has felt like for us. Today we close on our new home here (which is a huge answer to prayer)! And yet it will be another month or so until we get possession and are able to move in. Until then we’ll continue living out of boxes with most of our things still in storage. We look forward to the day when Jenn will get to use her gift of hospitality to welcome many of you into our home. Yet God is faithful in the waiting.

The Weekend - My parents and Jenn’s parents were able to visit this past weekend for my installation service (from Washington and California, respectively). It was so great to have them here and show them around our new home at Christ Church. We even took a trip to Lake Michigan in Holland and our dog, Ollie, got to dip his paws in the water before we realized on our way out that there was a “no animals” sign on the beach. Whoops! But just as special as having our parents visit was getting to see God’s faithfulness on full display in my installation service. Hearing Christ Church sing songs that each represented important moments in my life of faith and God’s calling me to this point brought me to tears. It was a rich blessing to see God’s hand at work in such a powerful way. He truly is a God who restores all things.

The Way Forward - All this leads me to a heart filled with gratitude and hope. I’m grateful for Christ Church. I’m grateful for God’s provision. I’m grateful for his sustaining hand in the waiting. And I’m hopeful for all the ways that God will use me and Jenn at Christ Church. We’re looking forward to getting to know so many more of you and to know others more deeply.

Photo by Zhu Liang on Unsplash