Connections

June 2024

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5).

Dear Praying Friends:

Last month, I wrote that “connecting with others” could help us to regain emotional equilibrium when we are dealing with chronic or acute pain of any sort. Pain breeds isolation and what experts call “dysregulation.” If we want to grow through pain, we need to take steps to build connections.

First, with God. I do this by a long daily quiet time in the morning, during which I read God’s Word, pray, and listen to Christian music. Part of the time, I combine these with stretching exercises, making breakfast, and a walk in the park near our house, but I mostly just focus on the Lord.

To connect with God together, Dori and I read Daily Light on the Daily Path separately in the morning, and then again together after supper. We also pray together in the morning and evening. On Sundays, we attend church. Dori has been going to a women’s Bible study group and singing in the choir, which she loves.

Connections with others

We also keep in touch with family and good friends by telephone, and meet with a few Christians here in College Station. In addition, I write weekly and monthly prayer letters and, recently, letters to a small group of men, telling them what’s going on and asking them to pray.

Letters aren’t enough, of course, so I make several calls each week to Chinese friends, ministry partners, and friends in North America, England, and Taiwan. I relish these conversations, most of which include prayer together. I trust that such calls are mutually beneficial.

Helping others connect

Recently, I have seen that most of my writings also aim to assist others to connect with God and other people.

The brief devotional meditations at the beginning of the weekly prayer letters help us to connect with God. Click here to read these devotions.

Several of my books talk about how we can connect with both God and with others, including Worship and Wisdom; Christ the King; Jesus: The Complete Man; The Lord’s Healing Words; Your Part in God’s Plan; and Truth and Life: Doctrinal and Ethical Notes on the Bible, Old Testament, and New Testament. Click here to see a complete list of all the books available.

It’s also good for us to connect with believers who have run the race before us. The brief biographies in the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (bdcconline.net) and in my edited book Builders of the Chinese Church encourage us as we see how Western missionaries and Chinese Christians dealt with challenges that were sometimes even greater than ours.

Dear friends, if you are feeling pain – and most of us are! – I strongly encourage you not to try to bear it alone, but to reach out to God and to fellow pilgrims on life’s hard way. And I hope you will take advantage of our resources, both for yourself and for others who might benefit from them.

Your fellow branch in the living Vine,
Wright