Mindy Lee Hopman

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
(Colossians 1:13 NASB).

My husband and I have two teenagers of our own, and we are currently hosting two international students in our home. With four teenagers in the house, my family goes hard and we tend to have long days. We LOVE our lifestyle, but we need the weekend to decompress and sometimes, let’s face it, it’s hard to get all of us out of the door on Sunday mornings.

“Busyness” is a sign of our times.

Many families, just like ours, are busy with school, sports, and activities. After a long week of being on the run, sometimes we just can’t go, go, go any longer. We long to spend time together with couch cuddles, coffee, and a good laugh from watching a recorded episode or two of Duck Dynasty on a lazy Sunday morning!

But we are church people.

When we are in town, we go to church and when we get there, we walk into the building with the lights turned down low and we sing out and up about the beauty, wonder, and power of God. As our worship is lifted His grace comes down over us in waves, and the struggles that were present up until that point all wash away.

Relationships. Community. Oneness in the Spirit.  Sunday mornings matter.

Sunday morning is a time for us to gather in community and shift our focus from self to Savior.

The church is not limited to four walls; the church is the place the body of Christ comes for fellowship, growth, and worship.

Wherever you are, or wherever you have been, you have a place in the body of Christ.

When I turned sixteen my mom gave me her old two-toned Toyota Tercel to drive. I say two-toned because the driver’s side door did not match the rest of the car. It was completely oxidized. The door almost appeared orange against the backdrop of the shiny red car. My good friend (who happens to be my husband today) spent hours and hours polishing my car to try to get the oxidized paint to match the rest.

My favorite part about my first car was not the two-toned color, or the torn-tan seats, but the fact that it was a stick shift, which meant I had to manually change gears. And learning how to drive it was quite the experience! As soon as I received my learner’s permit my mom drove me to an empty parking lot to practice.

My two-toned Toyota Tercel hopped like a bunny rabbit as I learned how to shift gears. I can’t quite describe the image of this car actually hopping through the parking lot, but if you have driven a standard car, you know what I am talking about. Once I got the hang of it, and we stopped hopping, I began to recognize when to change gears by the rev of the engine, then I would slowly shift and my car would drive smoothly again.

I clearly remember loving the feeling of shifting from the old gear and gliding into the new one.

The pressure of our lives is similar to that manual transmission.

Without the presence of Christ, the pressure from deadlines, sickness, finances, school, colleagues, colleges, family, sports, parents, etc, have us hopping around like my two-toned Toyota Tercel in the middle of the parking lot!

We try different things to release the pressure ourselves, such as excessive exercise or comfort foods, alcohol or drugs, video games or spending hours on social media, etc.. But those things don’t help us shift gears, they only add to the hopping around. They make our engines rev higher and potentially max out above 5,000 RPMs.

Until we find the Savior at the cross and turn back to God by shifting the focus of our hearts from self to Savior.

When our hearts turn back to Christ, we understand that forgiveness is found on the cross for the sin we were born with and the sins we carry. The Savior relieves the heavy loads.

It’s when we nail the pressures of life to the cross that He whispers to us, “It is finished. Shift your focus off of yourself. Fix your eyes on me. I loved you first. I died for the burdens you choose to carry yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Now easy on the gas and glide into the next gear… You’ve got this because I have you.”

Basking in His Light

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