Remembering and Blessing

9-15-21 Glenda Simpkins Hoffman

Like many of you, this has been a week of remembering the sadness and horror of 9/11. It’s hard to believe it happened 20 years ago, but I still remember the day very well. I was in Chicago at a Youth for Christ breakfast when the host interrupted the speaker to that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. The breakfast ended quickly, and my colleague and I listened to the car radio in stunned silence. When I arrived home, Stuart was already watching the live news coverage. We watched together as one of the towers collapsed.  

I couldn’t absorb what was happening, but that is a day, a week, a year I will never forget. The world has never been the same. Of course, the memory of that day is so much more intense for the families and friends who lost loved ones as well as for those living here in the D.C. area, as well as Pennsylvania and New York City, where these events actually took place. We must never forget, so we remember.  

1991 was another year I will never forget. I was on staff with the campus ministry known now as CRU. From September 1990 to June 1991, I was in Russia sharing the gospel with college students. It was an excitingly fruitful year of ministry there. The country was opening up and things were changing. The last few months I was there, political demonstrations were happening more frequently. I left in May, but in August the Soviet coup attempt failed, and by December the USSR had been dissolved.  

1991 was also the year Stuart traveled to visit me in Russia in March. We had met almost a year before, then became engaged in Leningrad, and married in Nevada in September. It was a year that changed the world and changed my life in many ways, so I remember.  

1981 was the year I went on my first summer project with CRU. I spent that summer in Wildwood, New Jersey, working in a hardware store and being equipped for ministry in challenging and wonderful ways. It was a true high in my experiences of life. 

But it was followed by a very difficult year. The woman mentoring me told me I was experiencing a dark night of the soul, a term I had never heard before. I didn’t really understand all that was happening in that year, but in retrospect, I know God was preparing me for what was to come the next summer. My twin sister married a wonderful man, a joyful occasion. But they moved thousands of miles away, which was a loss to bear.  

Six weeks after my sister’s wedding, my older brother died in an Air Force jet crash. My family gathered again, this time for a funeral. I never would have imagined our family could bear such grief, but we did. I experienced the “peace of God which surpasses comprehension,” which in some ways was surprising, but also deeply consoling. I knew that God had been at work the previous year in ways I could not see or imagine. While that did not take away the pain and grief of our loss, I could see the hand of God in the midst of it, so I remember.  

2021 will be a year I will not soon forget for many reasons. The world is changing again with the pandemic still a force to be reckoned with, our American forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan after 20 years, and as Stan shared Sunday, our country seems more deeply divided than we have known in our lifetime.  

2021 has also brought the celebration of 150 years of God’s faithfulness to VPC, and it has been a year of lots of change in our church. We have remembered and celebrated with gratitude the long ministry of Pete and Chris James. We have let go of Pete’s pastoral ministry, while continuing our relationship with him as a friend and brother in Christ.  

God has been at work in this interim time through our wonderful staff under Stan Ott’s leadership to prepare us for the hopeful future God has for us. We give thanks for Stan and his leadership and now pray for him as he recovers from surgery. And now we are anticipating with joy the coming of our new senior leader, Hope Lee. There is much to look forward to in the future.  

And on a personal level, 2021 is the year my husband Stuart has undergone treatment for cancer. This month we celebrate our 30-year anniversary. My mother has moved from the home where she lived all of my life and where we shared so much of life and made so many memories. It is a year of both joy and sorrow, deep solace in the midst of suffering.  Our family has been lifted up and carried by the prayers and tangible acts of love of so many. We have experienced the grace of God being lavished on us in so many ways, so we remember God’s goodness and give thanks.  

Life is filled with twists and turns, ups and down, pain and delight, darkness and light. But the hope we have is that our Triune God is in us, with us, and for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” By grace, Jesus has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. The Holy Spirit is the Helper and Advocate who is always with us, filling and empowering us for whatever comes.  

We can choose to remember both the good and the bad of life’s circumstances, yet always keeping before us the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness. In doing so, we can choose to bless his holy name and to give him praise no matter where we find ourselves.   

This week Psalm 103 came to mind, so I will close with this psalm of David, a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s goodness. And I hope you will choose to reflect and remember as God invites you to do. After recounting what God does, the psalmist declares, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,    and his kingdom rules over all.” Our sovereign king is at work in the world, in our church, and in our individual lives accomplishing his purposes. We can trust Lord and choose to bless the Lord for his goodness and faithfulness. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and do not forget all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the Pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 

6 The Lord works vindication 

    and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always accuse,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made;
    he remembers that we are dust. 

15 As for mortals, their days are like grass;
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
    on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments. 

19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his bidding,
    obedient to his spoken word.
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers that do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.