Fourth Presbyterian Church offers a variety of services and resources for those dealing with practical, emotional, and spiritual issues. A list of some of those services and resources is listed below.
Also provided below is a collection of resources—meditations, prayers, and scripture—for personal and family reflection during at time of economic challenge.Those who would like information about available services and resources are encouraged to contact Judith Watt, Associate Pastor for Congregational Care, at 312.573.3360 (jwatt@fourthchurch.org).
Available Services and Resources
• Assistance with Housing, Food, and Clothing
• Community Meals
• Short-Term Voicemail Accounts
• Job Readiness and Computer Skills Classes
• Social Service Referrals
• Career Counseling
• Financial Planning Seminars
• Stress Management
• Counseling for Individuals or Couples
• Grief Counseling
• Mental Health and Mental Illness Consultation and Resources
• Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Counseling and Resources
• Health, Wellness, and Spirituality Counseling, Classes, and Resources
• Exercise Classes
• Healthy Aging and Wellness Resources
• Caregiving Consultations and Resources
• Consultation for Assisted-Living or Retirement Options
• Medicare Part D Consultation
• Durable-Power-of-Attorney and End-of-Life Planning Consultation and Resources
• Funeral or Memorial Service Planning
• Ongoing Contact through Caring Connectors
• Caring Support on a One-Time, Short-Term, or Long-Term Basis
• Intercessory Prayers and Prayer Chain
• Home Communion
• Pastoral Visits
• Hospital Visits
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Resources for Personal and Family Reflection
during a Time of Economic Challenge
The Steadfast Love of God
In the midst of today’s uncertainties and anxiety over job loss, reduced income, house foreclosures, and the threat of more of the same, some people experience a sense of personal failure and shame. In addition to feelings of sadness, anger, and fear, they might also have profound feelings of guilt. What did I do wrong? I wish I had done this, that, or the other. Why me? What did I do to deserve this?
Such a reversal of fortune was what the Old Testament prophet Elijah experienced as recorded in chapters 16–19 of I Kings. Ahab was king of Israel. He married Jezebel, who worshiped the pagan gods of Baal and convinced her husband to do likewise. Elijah warned Ahab that the God of Israel would come down hard on him for his idolatry, and he challenged the gods of Baal in a contest of power with the Lord God of Israel. Elijah and the Lord won the contest. A bloodbath followed during which the prophets of Baal were slaughtered.
When Jezebel heard of this, she was outraged and put out a hit contract on Elijah, who fled for his life. He ended up in a wilderness sitting under a tree, lonely, isolated, and bemoaning that he was the only one who had not bowed the knee to Baal. What began as a triumph ended up a disaster. Elijah was a failure—or so it seemed. Only later did he learn from God that he was not the only one who stayed true to God; there were many others.
The experience of personal failure can result in a period of despondency and sometimes self-pity. To be human is to fail at times. To be human is to be the victim of someone else’s failure at times. In either case, it is important not to adopt the identity of either failure or victim, lest we set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The antidote the world offers to failure is success. Preoccupation with success leaves little tolerance of or room for failures or losers. The antidote our faith offers to failure is forgiveness. Only God is perfect, but God is not a perfectionist. Jesus on the cross thought at one point that God had forsaken him, had failed him. Resurrection proved otherwise. God’s steadfast love and forgiving grace reassure that God accepts and loves us with our failures and in spite of them. It is this reassurance and promise that allow us to accept the failures we have to live with and to experience, in the midst of failure, a sense of hopefulness that can fuel us into the future.
These reflections and prayers and scriptures are offered as an encouragement and a reminder that there are resources available to help underscore the reassurance that neither life, with its inevitable failures, or death, the ultimate failure of life, can separate us from the God whose love will never let go of us.
—John H. Boyle, Parish Associate• • •
My Help Comes from the Lord
Psalm 121:2Part of who we are is the way we see ourselves—strong, independent, and self-reliant. When faced with a problem, we move to solve it. We act quickly, because we are used to being productive.
But there are circumstances and events that can bring that self-confidence to a grinding halt. The loss of a job is one of those times. Suddenly our ability to control our future is gone. A loss of a job is a threat to the strength and self-assurance we count on to be a good provider.
Weeks with no job turn into months and soon fear and anxiety take up residency in us. We try not to be depressed or to have self-pity or fall apart. But as weeks go by that becomes harder to do.
So where does your help come from? The psalmist says “from God, the creator of heaven and earth.” Life-altering experiences require us to dig deep, to go below the surface of life. We need to unclutter our soul and clear away some assumptions we have of life and living. Usually we want to control situations that threaten us, but sometimes we simply need to let go and let God do that for us. We need to be reminded that God’s Spirit is working in us, nudging us to trust God and let go. It takes courage and willpower to do that, to let go until we are given new life and new directions. When everything is failing on the surface, deep down there is usually something stirring, keeping hope alive, making life possible. That helps us hold onto a God who is committed to us. Paul says, “Nothing can separate us from God not even tribulation.”
If we have a job, we need to walk with those who don’t, encouraging and supporting them. If we don’t have a job, we need to be patient, to hold onto courage, to look for God, and to be open to the Spirit’s nudging. We need to pray for God to renew our spirit and help us to wait with hope for new beginnings.
—Donna Gray, Minister for Children and Families• • •
Loving God, hold me close. In the chaos of unknowing, what I do know is that you hold me close. You cherish who I am more than what I do. I am your child always. I am an unrepeatable miracle; with each breath I draw on that mystery. Hold me close as I lean on you for courage and comfort. Since the beginning of time you have created beauty out of chaos. By your grace I will live a beautiful life, even though “the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam” (Psalm 46). Hold me close, for the love of Jesus; in the name of Jesus. Amen.
—Linda C. Loving, Minister for Evangelism• • •
“Hope is what sits by a window and waits for one more dawn, despite the fact that there isn’t an ounce of proof in tonight’s black, black sky that it can possibly come.”
—Joan D. Chittister
Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope
• • •
God did not say:
“You will not be tempested
You will not labor hard.
You will not be troubled.”
But God did say:
“You will not be overcome.”—Meditations with Julian of Norwich by Brendan Doyle
• • •
God, ground of our hope, when we are cast down or dismayed, keep alive in us your spirit of hope. Fill us with the strength and wisdom to find a way for peace as we lead the life of faith, until by the power of the Holy Spirit we overflow with hope; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
• • •
We can be angry at what has happened to us without feeling that we are angry at God. More than that, we can recognize our anger at life’s unfairness, our instinctive compassion at seeing people suffer, as coming from God, who teaches us to be angry at injustice and to feel compassion for the afflicted. Instead of feeling that we are opposed to God, we can feel that our indignation is God’s anger at unfairness working through us, that when we cry out, we are still on God’s side and he is still on ours.
—Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People• • •
We lay our broken world in sorrow at your feet,
haunted by hunger, war, and fear, oppressed by power
and hate.Here human life seems less than profit, might, and pride,
though to unite us all in you, you lived and loved and died.We bring our broken towns, our neighbors hurt and bruised;
you show us how old pain and wounds for new life can be used.We bring our broken loves, friends parted, families torn;
then in your life and death we see that love must be reborn.We bring our broken selves, confused and closed and tired;
then through your gift of healing grace new purpose is inspired.O Spirit, on us breath, with life and strength anew;
find in us love and hope and trust and lift us up to you.—Anna Briggs
(copyright GIA/Iona/WGRG. OneLicense.net License #A-712340)
• • •O people, you shall not drown in your tears
But tears shall bathe your wounds.O people, you shall not die from hunger
But hunger shall feed your souls.O people, you are not weak in your suffering
But strong and brave with knowing.O people, if you have known struggle
Only then are you capable of loving.O people, be aware of the love you have.
Let not your tears submerge it.
Let not your hunger eat it.
Let not your suffering destroy it—O people, bitterness does not replace a grain of love:
Let us be awake in our love.—Noorie Cassim, Cry Justice