Four Letter Words

June 2, 2021

Dear Saints,

You know when you have one of those days?? Those weeks? Those months? (I’m not talking about the last 19, but before then). You've had a long day. All you want is to arrive home, after a long hard day, a long hard week, a long month, and just for once, arrive to…peace and quiet.

That was my hope.

That was my wish and quite truthfully, it was my expectation. After a month of enduring chaos ensuing at 7 AM daily, due to the full renovation of the roads, driveways, and parking lots in my condo complex, the project was finally finished. No more constant BEEP-BEEP-BEEP from numerous vehicles at once, all day long. No more jackhammers taking out old sidewalks, no more crashing of truck gates. No more moving our cars from site to site to stay away from fresh macadam. No more men shouting, dust flying, or the sweet smell of tar in the air.

Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to have the work done but the noise and the daily chaos was not fun to wake up to and navigate for almost an entire month.

So…back to arriving home to find peace. All but one truck was gone and after all, it wasn’t a construction truck, just a mid-sized Amazon delivery truck. But the minute I opened my car door, the music blaring from the truck killed the dream of finding peace. A loud voice with some backup singers, in sort of a rap style, was spewing nothing but four letter-words. And the driver wasn’t even in the truck!! GRRRRR.

As I walked into my empty garage, it followed me. But then, I started to listen to the four-letter words. “I KNOW you LOVE me. I KNOW you HEAR me when I PRAY. You never let me FALL. You TAKE my HAND and LIFT me up. You are my LORD. I WILL EVER SING YOUR NAME.”

I stood there in my garage, listening, floored, and deeply touched that God overcame all of my roadblocks to peace, including hearing God’s voice, even when I thought, because of my present frustration and my ongoing depletion, I was unreachable.

Friends, many of us have used far too many four-letter words of the wrong kind over these, now 19 months and too few of the four-letter words above.

Let’s change our behavior. Let’s change our attitude. Let’s change our language until everything that we say and do is in line with our LORD.

Seeking to change with you,

Rev Jen