Someone I love died suddenly and I never got to say what I wanted to say. How do I live with this regret?

That kind of regret can feel like a weight you carry everywhere, replaying the last conversation and wishing you had known. None of us is given a warning, and not knowing is not the same as not loving. Scripture says that even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything (1 John 3:20). He sees the love you meant to say. Let your grief become tenderness toward the people still beside you, because that is a way of honoring the one you lost.

Why does not knowing what will happen tomorrow make me so anxious?

It is frightening to realize how little of life we actually control, and that fear can keep you up at night. James reminds us that we are like a mist and that our plans rest in God's hands (James 4:13-15). Jesus invites us not to carry tomorrow's worries today (Matthew 6:34). You may not know what tomorrow holds, but you can know the One who holds it. He is already there.

I've worked so hard to build a good life. Why do I still feel empty?

Sometimes life can look good from the outside and still feel hollow inside, and that can be confusing and lonely. Jesus told a story about a man who kept building bigger barns for a future he never got to enjoy, because he forgot to be rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21). Dreaming and working hard are not wrong. The emptiness may simply be an invitation to slow down, notice the blessings already in your hands, and make room for God and the people you love today.

I believe in God, but I don't feel like I actually know Him. Is that normal?

Many people sit in that space, believing in God from a distance while longing for something more real. The psalmist wrestled openly with God about life's unfairness, and he came out the other side saying God was holding his hand and was the strength of his heart (Psalm 73:23-26). Believing often starts the journey, and knowing grows as you walk with Him through real life, questions included. Keep showing up honestly. He is not hiding from you.

Does God even notice people like me, the ones everyone else overlooks?

Feeling invisible, like people walk past you or wish you would go away, is one of the deepest kinds of pain. Jesus said that when the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the forgotten are cared for, it is done to Him (Matthew 25:35-40). God doesn't just notice the overlooked. He stands with them so closely that He calls their experience His own. You are seen, and you matter to Him more than you know.

SABBATH · NOV 1

While We Can

Lincoln Salmon

Originally streamed on YouTube

We can't know what tomorrow holds, but we can know the One who holds it, and love people well today.

While We Can · Lincoln Salmon

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Questions this message meets

Someone I love died suddenly and I never got to say what I wanted to say. How do I live with this regret?

That kind of regret can feel like a weight you carry everywhere, replaying the last conversation and wishing y...

That kind of regret can feel like a weight you carry everywhere, replaying the last conversation and wishing you had known. None of us is given a warning, and not knowing is not the same as not loving. Scripture says that even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything (1 John 3:20). He sees the love you meant to say. Let your grief become tenderness toward the people still beside you, because that is a way of honoring the one you lost.
Why does not knowing what will happen tomorrow make me so anxious?

It is frightening to realize how little of life we actually control, and that fear can keep you up at night. J...

It is frightening to realize how little of life we actually control, and that fear can keep you up at night. James reminds us that we are like a mist and that our plans rest in God's hands (James 4:13-15). Jesus invites us not to carry tomorrow's worries today (Matthew 6:34). You may not know what tomorrow holds, but you can know the One who holds it. He is already there.
I've worked so hard to build a good life. Why do I still feel empty?

Sometimes life can look good from the outside and still feel hollow inside, and that can be confusing and lone...

Sometimes life can look good from the outside and still feel hollow inside, and that can be confusing and lonely. Jesus told a story about a man who kept building bigger barns for a future he never got to enjoy, because he forgot to be rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21). Dreaming and working hard are not wrong. The emptiness may simply be an invitation to slow down, notice the blessings already in your hands, and make room for God and the people you love today.
I believe in God, but I don't feel like I actually know Him. Is that normal?

Many people sit in that space, believing in God from a distance while longing for something more real. The psa...

Many people sit in that space, believing in God from a distance while longing for something more real. The psalmist wrestled openly with God about life's unfairness, and he came out the other side saying God was holding his hand and was the strength of his heart (Psalm 73:23-26). Believing often starts the journey, and knowing grows as you walk with Him through real life, questions included. Keep showing up honestly. He is not hiding from you.
Does God even notice people like me, the ones everyone else overlooks?

Feeling invisible, like people walk past you or wish you would go away, is one of the deepest kinds of pain. J...

Feeling invisible, like people walk past you or wish you would go away, is one of the deepest kinds of pain. Jesus said that when the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the forgotten are cared for, it is done to Him (Matthew 25:35-40). God doesn't just notice the overlooked. He stands with them so closely that He calls their experience His own. You are seen, and you matter to Him more than you know.

Read the heart of this message

This message begins with something most of us have lived through: the shock of losing someone suddenly, and the ache of wondering what we would have said or done if we had known. From there it turns to Jesus' story of a man who spent everything on building a bigger future and never stopped to notice the life and blessings in front of him. James adds a gentle warning that none of us actually holds tomorrow. The point is not to frighten us. It is to wake us up to how precious today is.

That truth comes close to home. It shows up in how we treat the people we see every week, the spouse we keep promising 'someday' to, the parents who quietly sacrifice for us, the children who need our time more than our plans, and the strangers we might be tempted to brush past. Scripture reminds us that the overlooked person in front of us may carry more of God's presence than we realize. Even our frustrating delays and detours may be places where God was protecting us in ways we couldn't see.

The closing call is simple and searching. Don't wait to say the kind word, to give the hug, or to take the walk. Do all the good you can while you can. Beneath that call sits an invitation to move from merely believing God exists to actually knowing Him. That kind of knowing grows from walking with Him through real life, honest questions and all, until you can say from experience that He is real and He has been faithful.

The Scriptures Pastor opened

LUKE 12:16-21 · KJV

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
JAMES 4:13-15 · KJV

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
MATTHEW 6:34 · KJV

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
HEBREWS 13:2 · KJV

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
MATTHEW 25:35-40 · KJV

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
PSALM 73:23-26 · KJV

Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
1 JOHN 3:20 · KJV

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 · KJV

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

If this spoke to you, also hear…

regret · grief · uncertainty · kindness · knowing god