It was the eleven o'clock worship service on Sunday morning. The sanctuary was full. A large radio audience was tuned in. The time had come for the reading of the Old Testament Lesson, a passage from the Minor Prophet Habakkuk. What the radio listeners heard and the congregation observed was a liturgist apparently trying desperately to find the appointed passage. Some were convinced that I could not find Habakkuk. Others felt that the gilt-edged pages of my Bible, never having been opened there, were still glued together. Two pages, though, were holding to each other more tightly than one of those child-proof prescription caps, and one is, after all, quite reluctant before such an august and overflowing congregation, to lick one's fingers and rough apart the pages of holy writ!

There are times in all our lives when the pages are hard to turn. Our hearts or our bodies are hurting, and we want to turn the page and can't. Depression darkens the page we are on today, and we cannot find a brighter one. We cannot keep the page open to the diet we need to follow. We wish we could get beyond an unpleasant experience at work or with a friend, but we cannot seem to close the book on it.

Couples find themselves in unfamiliar empty nests after children have gone away to school or to marriage. The thought of retirement so threatens some people that they only turn the page when forced to do so. Page turning is always easier when plans and dreams have been sketched out on a waiting page to which we can turn when forced or unexpected changes require it. The most painful and difficult pages to turn are the one that closes the life of a loved one, the one that marks the end of a marriage or the change of a job or even of a career. Turning to new pages is frightening. We know what is on the page in front of us. Who knows what we may meet on the next one!

We can count on this: whenever a page is turned, written boldly on the next one we will always find: "Be strong and very courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go," (Joshua 1:9) and the promise of Jesus, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid." (John 14:27)

Go ahead, then. Turn the page!

God of patience and encouragement, forgive our reluctance to turn pages. We cherish the past we have known and fear the unfamiliar future. We question whether we can summon up strength enough to make changes and adapt to new circumstances.

Grant us the courage, O God, to turn over needed pages, to open new chapters in our lives, to begin again after hurts and losses, to tackle the difficult changes we have been reluctant to make in ourselves, and above all, to let you change our hearts so that we may give more love and encouragement and take in more of the love and encouragement you are always so willing to share with us.

We thank you, O God, that life's book is never without new and exciting pages to open: new skills, new jobs, new friends, new celebrations of your unchanging love, new appreciation of ourselves as your own daughters and sons, and, at the end, a whole new volume of the joys of heaven and of serving day and night in your temple of unending light and peace, through the might and grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.