When we put on Christ we become God’s messenger of hope
The Center for Deasese Control has found that 1-in-4 18-24 yr-olds had contemplated suicide in the previous 30 days, and 80% of students have reported the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health. Meanwhile, substance use continues to rise. The Vashon Island Youth and Family Services counselors have seen a more than 22% increase in the number of clients in 2020, with the number of young adults continuing to grow every month into 2021.
As we Orthodox Christians confront this present pandemic, we need to be aware of how much we can contribute to the emotional, spiritual, and physical health of others. Walking through life with a smile on our face and a song in our heart is the best way to help others stay afloat during one of the most difficult periods in modern history. When we keep our mind and heart in a good place, we are empowered to be a lifeline to others. Life has many turns and many trials, but when we keep centered on all the good that is in our life, the trials are short lived.
As Christians we must remember that smiles are contagious. Ever notice how a room brightens up when someone walks in who is always smiling, always happy, always extending a warm greeting to others? What better gift can we give another, than a sincere smile.
I remember finding a young man sitting on a log, deep on the trail above Multnomah Falls, on the Columbia River of Oregon, many years ago. I’d hiked up the switchback trail to the primordial forest. As a young man I’d frequently run that trial, finding the peace and solitude I so craved.
About four miles from the top, I was somewhat surprised to find another person, sitting alone on a log. Since there had been only one other car parked at the lodge, I did not expect to see anyone. As he was deep in thought, I apologized for startling him. Sensing something was wrong, I commented on the beauty of God’s creation and asked if he’d like to share a sandwich and some coffee. He surprised me with his question, asking if I was an angel.
Sitting down on the log next to him, I opened my backpack, and offered him half of my lunch. A few moments passed when he turned to me, showed me a revolver, and told me he’d come to this remote spot with the intent of killing himself. When he saw me appear with a long white beard and hair, and dressed in my long black robe, he’d first thought I might be an angel, sent by God.
He confessed that he’d been praying that God would forgive him for what he was about to do. I assured him that I was indeed flesh and blood, and certainly no angel. But I also told him that I was sent by God with a message. The message from God was that he was loved, and that God had a plan for his life, and this period of despair would soon pass.
He handed me his revolver. I emptied the gun of the bullets, and placed it in my backpack, and we had a long conversation about his life. Eventually we walked together back to our vehicles. With the promise that he would return the revolver to his father, and with the promise he’d let his father know he’d intended to kill himself, until that encounter with a monk, I handed him the gun, and we parted ways.
I’ve long wondered about the direction his life must have taken after that encounter in the forest, so very many years ago. I’ve also wondered what would have happened if I’d continued on that trail without stopping to greet him, without offering a smile and a shared sandwich.
To this day I feel blessed that God allowed me to be His messenger on that lonely trail, and I try to be available each and every day as His messenger. When we make a concerted effort to be centered in Christ, each and every day, each and every hour, we clear the way for our heart and mind to be a vehicle for the love of Christ to others. When we put aside ourselves and put on Christ, we become God’s messengers, and serve as beacons of light for those who have become overwhelmed with hopelessness.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: Oregon’s Multnomah Falls.
A blessed and happy Names Day to His Eminence Kyrill, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America. Many years, O Lord, grant unto Thy faithful servant.
Saturday February 27, 2021 / February 14, 2021
Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Tone four.
Fast-free Week. Fast-free
St. Kyrill, Equal-to-the-Apostles, teacher of the Slavs (869).
Venerable Auxentius, monk of Bithynia (470).St. Raphael, bishop of Brooklyn (1915). New Hieromartyr Onisimus bishop of Tula (1937).
New Hieromartyr Tryphon deacon (1938).
Venerable Isaac, recluse of the Kiev Caves (1090).
12 Greek Master-Builders of the Dormition Cathedral in the Lavra of the Kievan Caves (11th C).
Translation of the relics of Prince-martyr Michael and his counselor, St. Theodore of Chernigov (1578).
Venerable Maron, hermit of Syria (423).
St. Abraham, bishop of Charres in Mesopotamia (ca. 423).
St. Ilarion the Georgian of Imeretia and Mt. Athos (1854) (Georgia).
Hieromartyr Philemon, bishop of Gaza.
New Martyr George the Tailor of Mitylene, at Constantinople (1693) (Greek).
New Martyr Nicholas of Corinth (1554) (Greek).
St. Peter, patriarch of Alexandria (380).
New Monk-martyr Damian the New of Philotheou, who suffered at Larissa (1568).
The Scripture Readings
2 Timothy 3:1-9
Perilous Times and Perilous Men
3 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
Luke 20:46-21:4
46 “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
The Widow’s Two Mites
21 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”
You ARE an Angel sent by God to help all of us who seek you out everyday on AFR.
Thank you 🙏
Dear Father,
You always seem to “hit the nail on the head”—just what we need at the most times in our lives that keeps us focused. Thank you. Abundant blessings to you with much Grace.
Love those falls. I have walked in behind them many times and have been to the top too. I brought a boy scout troop down from Sherrard Point on Larch Mountain to they falls on the Columbia River Gorge. It was a drop of about 1,200 feet to the river level and was one of the most beautiful hikes I ever made; it was a full display of God’s glory in the nature around us with many other waterfalls alongside the trail; less spectacular than Multnomah Falls itself, but with each one displaying its own glory. I grew up in Gresham, Oregon, my family spent many days and took many road trips into the Columbia Gorge before the time of the modern freeway whisks one past many of the sites and the beauty of the gorge. Part of my maternal ancestors homesteaded on the east side of the gorge in Wasco County, Oregon which was once the largest county in the USA taking in northern Idaho, all of Eastern Oregon and a large portion of Montana. The Dalles, Oregon was the county seat. I grew up with a full appreciation of God’s glory in His creation that has never left me. Glory to God.