Dear Reader,
As you might have already figured out by now, Noah isn’t a particular person. Over the last couple of months, many people have been writing to you anonymously, under the guise of “Noah”.
Why Noah?
“Why Noah?” - you might ask. As the Bible describes, Noah was one of few God-fearing men (or women) on the face of the earth at that time, and in many ways that may represent us during the week. Many of us may not be surrounded by Christian friends, and those of us who do might not have friends who actively live out God’s word.
Through the interactions I’ve had with different youths, I can tell that many of you find that Christianity has little application to your daily life. Growing up, I often felt that way too. The stories and teachings I heard often failed to address the issues I faced at school and at home. These issues ranged from struggling with grades, relationships, social standing and so much more. Like some of you, I often blamed everyone else for not addressing these issues during sermon/DG time. However, over time, I realised that the time we have on a Saturday is too limited to address select issues that some of us may face. Also, talking about these issues openly isn’t in our youth culture (yet).
Slowly, it dawned on me that I needed to work on my faith outside of regular church time. This involved checking up on my Christian friends, reading books on the issues I was facing and talking to older friends who had walked down paths similar to mine.
I’ve come to realise that practicing my faith is an everyday occurrence, beyond regular church time.
What Now?
Living out our faith courageously is even more pressing today. In these unprecedented times, many of us have fallen away, and we long to return to church for social interaction and to be among friends. I feel this way too. To make up for this absence of interaction, there remains a need for us to go beyond what we’re used to – be it to check in with each other during the week or to pray with one another over a zoom call.
While it is really difficult to stay focused for the duration of an online sermon, much less hold DG time over zoom, this is a real test of our faith. Are we going to rise up to the challenge and think outside the box to keep our community alive, or are we going to give up, wait out Covid-19 and risk losing our faith, or watch our friends turn away from God and His community?
Our present situation is not unique. The believers in the early church often experienced outright persecution for their faith, and perhaps that was what motivated them to keep going. We may not be facing the same type of persecution – but we are facing many temptations to stray away.
In this period of testing, are we going to be like Noah and stand firm? Or are we going to be like the rest of the world and get swept away?
Let me encourage you with Hebrews 10:23-25.
“23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
With Love: Tim
PS: This will be the last episode of TEES/Project Noah letter for the foreseeable future - I hope you’ve been encouraged by it. A big thank you to all the past writers.