The verses above are favorites of mine from one of the songs we use in my Body & Soul fitness class. Some advice I once received about fitness was that if you don’t feel like exercising, just commit to doing 5 minutes. If you still don’t feel like working out after 5 minutes, you can quit. This is the fourth song in our class lineup—ten minutes in. So instead of five minutes I give it ten because this song rocks my world. It is a song about God’s unconditional love and when I hear it, I’m reminded that God’s love is always there for me no matter what. It is like warm sunshine on the cool spring days.
This year has felt “like four seasons of winter” and there are many reasons to feel blue. Social distancing, our beloved church and Pennywise closed, and daily reports on the virus can get you down. My older daughter and her fiancé lost their jobs, their health insurance (she’s a Type 1 diabetic), and had to postpone the wedding they were planning to have the first weekend of May. Samantha can’t see her friends or go to her school and the isolation for a teen with no siblings at home can be trying. There is plenty of negativity to go around. But “His love is the reason to keep on believing.” I just have look for it.
I have seen God’s love in the nurses at the hospital who were so good to my mother-in-law during her last days. Watching them in action I can’t help but be humbled by the sacrifices they are making and the risk they are taking. My daughter and her fiancé felt like giving up but were able to get unemployment insurance checks, the stimulus checks, and both of their families are more than willing to help. Samantha has found creative ways to keep her friendships alive through social media and we feel blessed that Kamran’s job is secure. We look for the helpers in the news and on social media too—there are so many of them out there. Until our world opens back up, we will continue to find God in those helpers, but also in the warm beautiful days of spring and the clean fresh air we now have because everyone is at home. These are God’s gifts and a sign that his love abounds.
As the song says: “He puts that hunger in your heart” and “that fire in your soul.” “His love is the reason to keep on believing.” So I’ll keep my heart light by looking for the good, helping where I can. I also will continue to worship God with my body and soul by exercising with music like ‘Reason’ and by tuning into Holy Comforter’s YouTube channel to see your smiling faces.
May God bless all of you and keep you safe during this time and may the spirit keep that fire in your soul!
Linda Khan
John 15:13
“Greater love has no one that this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
