Christianity – The Story of the Rubber Band

Hi everyone.  This month I would like us to consider the rubber band.  This small and insignificant piece of rubber has so many uses in our lives. It holds many things together. It can also be used for fun and entertainment.  And yet, for all its usefulness, it cannot fulfil its purpose without tension.  Until that elastic is stretched it is not living its purpose.  We stretch it around objects to hold them together.  If it is limp, then the objects it is to hold fall out. If we are shooting the airplane out of its launcher, then we have to stretch the elastic. 

Elastics function in a good kind of stress/tension.  I have heard and read reports that people too need a certain amount of good stress for them to be healthy and effective in their lives. The stress of a deadline that urges you on to work better to accomplish your goal.  The stress of juggling several projects and yet accomplishing them.

There is also bad stress / hypertension.  You should only stretch a rubber band to a certain point and not further.  If you stretch it beyond that point, then it can break or be less stretchable and not be able to handle as much as it used to.  They can also become hardened over time and lose elasticity.

I am seeing many people living in various tensions.  Some are living in the good tension that is propelling them to greater things.  Others are seemingly stretched to the limit and ready to break.  Still others have survived their tense time but have been stretched to such an extent that they cannot handle as much any more. Others may have been hardened to some degree by their experiences and are more likely to break if stretched.

The people of the Bible are no different than us.  Hebrews 11 gives us a photo album of people who lived in tension – some having triumph and others of which it was said, “the world was not worthy of them.”  And yet, for all of them it is written: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth…. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God….”

Note that these heroes were not perfect people.  Abraham lied and said Sarah was his sister so that Pharaoh almost took her to be his wife.  Isaac had his problems and married twice.  Jacob stole his brother’s blessings and inheritance.  And yet, God was not ashamed to be called their God because they held on to His promise to them even when they did not come to a place of seeing it truly fulfilled.

I believe we are entering a time of much fulfilment.  But just as the saying goes, it is often darkest just before the dawn.  Many of you have fought hard for the promises of God in your life.  This church has persevered through much to bring it to today. I see signs of the dawn.  In this hour we must not lose hope but spur one another on to love and good works.  Jacob was one who held onto God until his blessing at daybreak. Our daybreak is upon us.  At Pastor’s Camp one of the speakers prophesied (and he did not do so lightly) that just as Abrahams was promised in Genesis 17:21 that “by this time next year those things that we have been praying for, hoping for, fasting for, dancing for, crying for, shouting for … that by this time next year it shall be in your hands.”

Be in prayer; keep the faith; hold on for your daybreak.  There are so many signs of God bringing us into the fulfilment of promise.  See the new day dawning.

Loving you all,

Pastor Merril