Dwight A. Moody
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.
I feel like singing this song, don’t you?
These are trying times, and we look for help. We look inward, and outward. We look around us and we look up.
The shocking murder and cover-up here in Glynn County, Georgia is but one element of these trying times. People everywhere are sick and dying. 70,000 or so, now, have died from this virus with no end in sight. Has the virus touched your family? Has it taken somebody you know and love? You need a balm, a healing, a medicine for the soul.
Millions of people, including some listening today, are suffering financial hardship. Your income has shriveled. You have been furloughed or terminated. A single check for $1,200 from Uncle Sam does almost nothing to stem the tide of financial stress. You are facing bankruptcy. Your dreams, your home, your business—dissolving in the acids of this merciless pandemic. You are singing some version of this song: “Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain.”
Many others are pouring out your heart and soul and strength trying to help. Story after story comes of doctor, nurse, aid, driver, first responder of every kind—pouring out all you have to help those who are weak, or sick, or poor, or discouraged. Maybe you are serving in a food line, or delivering food from the terminal, or helping people apply for unemployment, or negotiating between landlord and renter.
God bless you. God bless you every one.
On top of all this, there are political and ideological divides that push us further apart. That make us suspect one another, that nurture fear and resentment and anger. These are hard times, here and everywhere.
“There is a balm in Gilead” the song says, “to make the wounded whole.”
It is a quote from the Bible, of course. The great Hebrew prophet Jeremiah used this reference more than once. He was addressing the loss and grief and struggle of his own people. They had been overrun by a foreign power: cities destroyed, armies defeated, temple demolished, leaders exiled, land forsaken. Is there not some source of healing, of hope, the great prophet mused? Is there not some balm, some spiritual medicine, perhaps across the Jordan River, in Gilead?
The song answers the question this way: “There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.”
And, surprise, surprise, many people this spring have found it!
The Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life reports this: One quarter of Americans say their faith in God has been strengthened during this pandemic. Is that your testimony?
I know this: more people are going to church now that the churches are closed! I know it sounds odd but it is true. My Sunday School class has been meeting on line through Zoom. Every week we have had as many or more than we normally have when the building is open and we are sitting face to face. The on-line traffic for our Sunday morning, You Tube worship services is, some weeks, double what we normally expect in the sanctuary. I know the same is true for many of you and your service of worship.
Thank you, Pastor Tony Lankford and pastor John Perry, and all the pastors, priests, rabbis, and imams, for your leadership in these difficult days. You and thousands of ministers—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and many other small groups in America—you are to be commended. You have found new and refreshing ways to find that Balm and haul it from Gilead, across the Jordan River, and deliver it to us just when we need it.
Thanks to all the artists—religious and otherwise—who have taken to social media, from your homes and studios. You have talked, danced, sung, composed, directed, and coordinated a multitude of talented angels; you have ministered to us; you have blessed us; you have been channels of healing, and hope, and help. Like many others, you have done what needed to be done to address the pressing needs of the human soul. You have blessed my spirit many times overs.
We need that balm from Gilead. We need what the Christian apostle called “the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We need a double portion of the Spirit, don’t you think?
Is there a balm in Gilead? Is there a healing in Glynn County? Is there hope for our country?
Indeed there is. And it is seeping into the souls of many of us today.
Thanks be to God.
(May 2020)
Dwight A. Moody
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.
I feel like singing this song, don’t you?
These are trying times, and we look for help. We look inward, and outward. We look around us and we look up.
The shocking murder and cover-up here in Glynn County, Georgia is but one element of these trying times. People everywhere are sick and dying. 70,000 or so, now, have died from this virus with no end in sight. Has the virus touched your family? Has it taken somebody you know and love? You need a balm, a healing, a medicine for the soul.
Millions of people, including some listening today, are suffering financial hardship. Your income has shriveled. You have been furloughed or terminated. A single check for $1,200 from Uncle Sam does almost nothing to stem the tide of financial stress. You are facing bankruptcy. Your dreams, your home, your business—dissolving in the acids of this merciless pandemic. You are singing some version of this song: “Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain.”
Many others are pouring out your heart and soul and strength trying to help. Story after story comes of doctor, nurse, aid, driver, first responder of every kind—pouring out all you have to help those who are weak, or sick, or poor, or discouraged. Maybe you are serving in a food line, or delivering food from the terminal, or helping people apply for unemployment, or negotiating between landlord and renter.
God bless you. God bless you every one.
On top of all this, there are political and ideological divides that push us further apart. That make us suspect one another, that nurture fear and resentment and anger. These are hard times, here and everywhere.
“There is a balm in Gilead” the song says, “to make the wounded whole.”
It is a quote from the Bible, of course. The great Hebrew prophet Jeremiah used this reference more than once. He was addressing the loss and grief and struggle of his own people. They had been overrun by a foreign power: cities destroyed, armies defeated, temple demolished, leaders exiled, land forsaken. Is there not some source of healing, of hope, the great prophet mused? Is there not some balm, some spiritual medicine, perhaps across the Jordan River, in Gilead?
The song answers the question this way: “There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.”
And, surprise, surprise, many people this spring have found it!
The Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life reports this: One quarter of Americans say their faith in God has been strengthened during this pandemic. Is that your testimony?
I know this: more people are going to church now that the churches are closed! I know it sounds odd but it is true. My Sunday School class has been meeting on line through Zoom. Every week we have had as many or more than we normally have when the building is open and we are sitting face to face. The on-line traffic for our Sunday morning, You Tube worship services is, some weeks, double what we normally expect in the sanctuary. I know the same is true for many of you and your service of worship.
Thank you, Pastor Tony Lankford and pastor John Perry, and all the pastors, priests, rabbis, and imams, for your leadership in these difficult days. You and thousands of ministers—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and many other small groups in America—you are to be commended. You have found new and refreshing ways to find that Balm and haul it from Gilead, across the Jordan River, and deliver it to us just when we need it.
Thanks to all the artists—religious and otherwise—who have taken to social media, from your homes and studios. You have talked, danced, sung, composed, directed, and coordinated a multitude of talented angels; you have ministered to us; you have blessed us; you have been channels of healing, and hope, and help. Like many others, you have done what needed to be done to address the pressing needs of the human soul. You have blessed my spirit many times overs.
We need that balm from Gilead. We need what the Christian apostle called “the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We need a double portion of the Spirit, don’t you think?
Is there a balm in Gilead? Is there a healing in Glynn County? Is there hope for our country?
Indeed there is. And it is seeping into the souls of many of us today.
Thanks be to God.
(May 2020)
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