Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We’ve just come through the midterm elections and I’m sure many of you are glancing at this article in between holiday planning and shopping. Let’s state it plainly; false gods are all around us. It is so easy to allow our trust and loyalties drift over to slick talking candidates, or to believe that election results will ease our national tensions, or to cover up strained family relationships with gifts and large meals, or numb our inner pain with any number of vices. This coming month can be a wonderful, reuniting, renewing time. It can also put additional pain on our grief, stress on our anxiety, and the dark long days feel just about right for how many will get through this coming month.
Be not afraid, for your Savior is coming. Our sure and certain hope was born on a dark, cold night and then burst forth in light to banish the darkness. Emmanuel, God with us is the God of this season and the Lord of our lives. Center your family gathers there, change your shopping patterns and put away your numbing agents. Place your trust firmly in the cradle that held the Light of the World!
Easier said than done. I know. Here are some ways you might consider re-arranging this Advent and Christmas to help you with the above.
- Talk with your loved ones about doing a service project together in lieu of gifts.
- Hang your church bulletin on your refrigerator so that the scripture texts are in front of you each morning. Pause and read one reading every day and allow God’s Word to center you.
- Come to worship. Hear God’s Word proclaimed, be fed at the table, pray, sing, breathe.
- Make a coffee date with a loved one, or an appointment with a trust professional and share about the grief, pain or addiction that you are dealing with. There is no reason to suffer alone.
- Visit this page for more ideas on how to calm, center, re-create your holiday season: https://adventconspiracy.org/
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 12:2-6
Pastor Elizabeth
