The school bell rang at 1:04 pm. It was January 28, 1986 and I was an 11th grader at Burnsville Senior High School in Burnsville, Minnesota. I walked out into the hallway and was near my locker when my friend, Jon, approached me with a tremor in his voice. “Did you hear the news?” About an hour earlier, the Space Shuttle Challenger had just lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida when it broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. In that moment, the whole world seemed to shift into slow motion as shock and disbelief overwhelmed us. For the rest of the afternoon, we gathered around school televisions and watched live coverage and analysis of that tragedy. That was nearly 35 years ago and I remember the events vividly. Do you remember what you were doing when the Space Shuttle exploded in 1986? Do you remember what you were doing when you first got news about 9/11? Do you remember what you were doing when Ronald Reagan was shot? Some of you can recall exactly what you were doing when NASA first landed a man on the moon. And if you are old enough, I’ll bet some of you remember specifically what you were doing when JFK was assassinated.
I believe we are living through another one of those moments. Years from now, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will ask you, “do you remember what you were doing during the global pandemic of 2020-2021?” Sure, most of would rather forget about all this and let’s be honest, it’s been a blur. The past 10 months have felt like 10 years! What will you tell them? “I wore pajama’s most of the time, ate way too much junk food, and binge-watched Netflix until I was numb.” Or “I chose to invest in my spiritual life by having more conversations with Jesus; I stayed connected with my church friends through Zoom; I found creative ways to serve others who were struggling during the economic hardships; and for the first time in my life, I read through the entire Bible.”
By now, you are aware that we are challenging the entire Faith Lutheran congregation to read through the Bible in 2021. While that might sound like a lofty challenge, when you pause to think about it, the commitment is spending about 15 minutes a day reading a few passages (depending on how fast/slowly you read. And when you consider that there are 1,440 minutes in a day, 15 minutes dedicated to reading God’s Word might seem more doable. Thus, the challenge is committing about 1% of your day in 2021 to reading Scripture so that you might walk closer to Jesus through whatever challenges, hardships, or obstacles you may encounter this next year. The Apostle John was even more clear and concise in why God has given us the Bible: “These are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name.” (John 20:31)
Each of you has a “One Year Bible” with 365 readings. Would you be willing to try to invest 15 minutes of every day in 2021 to walking closer with Jesus? If you are open to this challenge, I’m confident you won’t regret it. And who knows, future generations might just be blessed because of what you were doing in this up-coming year.
Pastor Brian Goke
12/29/2020