The LORD’s Compassions Never Fail: These Pages Count the Ways!
By President Rich Gurgel
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Those beautiful and comforting words the Lord inspired Jeremiah to pen in Lamentations 3:22-23 are even more astounding when you ponder their context.
Lamentations was written as the smoke was rising from Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem. That capital city of God’s chosen people had been burned to the ground. Solomon’s golden temple, that wonder of the ancient world and center of Israel’s worship life, was gone. All of this had come as God’s call to repentance to his chosen people.
Yet God enabled Jeremiah to see through the smoke and confess what was still true. Yes, God’s call to repentance was painful discipline, but right there Jeremiah saw a merciful God who wouldn’t give up on them. The Lord was at work through it all to gather them—as Jesus would say of Jerusalem centuries later—“as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matthew 23:37).
Such is the faithful heart of God, who longs to bless repentant sinners with his compassion. And that’s not a momentary mood but the perpetual passion of his Fatherly heart toward us. He’s proved that in our Lord Jesus, whose suffering, death, and resurrection we recount again this spring as Lent gives way to Easter. All that is behind the “every morning” reality of our Lord’s compassions.
How important it is right now to hear Jeremiah express this truth! With all that’s going on in our world, with the pandemic and supply chain shortages and international tensions—feel free to add your own unique challenges here—we can easily take our eyes off the realities of God’s “new every morning” compassions. We can forget that what was true for God’s people, even as Jerusalem was a smoking ruin, is still true today: our Lord’s compassions bless us every day in more ways than we can count.
May I encourage you to view this edition of MLC InFocus as a concrete way to count God’s compassions to you through your college of ministry?
Are there challenges? Yes! We’re working hard to reverse the recent downturn in enrollment—and the number of called worker vacancies in our synod gives such efforts extra urgency. The growing mental health needs of the rising generation—made more acute by the pandemic—challenge us to do better in surrounding our MLC students with the support they need. And while we have watched average educational debt for MLC graduates decrease for three straight years, we know we can do more to make MLC more affordable for our students and those who support them.
But in the midst of all that, please don’t overlook what each page of this InFocus holds: evidence that the Lord’s compassions never fail, and they certainly haven’t failed us at MLC!
As you read the Here on the Hill stories (pages 4-8), realize what you are seeing! Thank God for many campus activities, sadly put on hold last year, that God has again allowed us to enjoy—not the least of which is welcoming hundreds of prospective students to campus as they ponder whether public ministry might be for them too!
As you read about our special education programs (pages 12-13), including a new accelerated master’s program, thank the Lord for the MLC students who have a heart for teaching children who have special needs. We are excited that he is allowing us to offer them several different pathways to this ministry.
As you “Meet Your Future Called Workers” (pages 14-25), please recognize each story for what it is proclaiming. Every student’s presence on our campus is a not-so-minor miracle of God’s grace as he continues to bring to us those willing to ponder the privilege of public ministry. The Lord hears our prayers for workers in the harvest field.
As you read about gifts received and projects completed through our Equipping Christian Witnesses campaign (page 29), you are witnessing the fruit God is bringing through the gifts and prayers of thousands of his people around our synod.
Thank you for reading these stories! Thank you for your prayers and gifts, which God uses to write these stories. And then remember what is behind everything you will read on these pages. Our Lord’s compassions never fail.
