On Further Reflection

I normally work at home on Monday morning and it is a beautiful one to do just that.  The ladies are gathering at the church about now for their Life Group Christmas party.  This Monday morning group is a lively one.  It encourages me so much to see them gather and enjoy themselves as they do.

I took my son to the wharf this morning at 5:15am and he is on the high seas today, doing what so many Grand Manan-ers are at this time of year.  I am grateful that he is having this experience and that he has someone who allows him the work.  Elaine is filling in at the school today.  She loves her work there.

It is natural on Monday mornings for me to review the service in my mind and heart.  My heart still feels the weight of Jon’s concern yesterday and I am praying for him even now.  Melissa Badger was unable to be out yesterday for physical battles that she faces.  I am praying for Melissa.  Eric & Berneta are on the move as per usual and my prayers are with them as they walk together through sickness … in sickness and in health … I remember those words almost 40 years ago now.  Praying for Vick & Sheila, Carl, Rob, Claude, Bonnie, and the list just keeps on going.  These are physical cares and concerns represented in my prayers.

I am also praying for the spiritual needs of loved ones today in my family and the others.  It is no less a concern and perhaps even more.  In recent years especially as I pray, I can quite literally feel the weight.  Often it movers me to tears.

If we could just fix things …

God can fix things but rarely in the way that we might … and I am grateful for that.

If Christmas is to bring us Hope, Love, Peace and Joy, it will be in the Person of Christ.  So that’s where I am looking.  The holiday changed for me once I made that change.  Like so many others, it was more depressing than joyous as I looked in all the wrong places.  Not wrong in terms of evil but wrong as in “not right“.  The biggest challenge for me was to extract myself from the centre of the universe.  I would never have said that the world revolved around me but I acted and thought as though this were the case.  And when the world didn’t cooperate, I was down in the dumps.  God wasn’t quite so real.  People didn’t care as much as they should have.  You know how it goes.

The more I think of me, the less I think of God and the more I think of God, the less I think of me. – KI

It is such an unhealthy place to be self-absorbed.  Again I speak of the tragedy of this perspective not right or wrong.  It is so natural for all of us to see the world as it relates to us.  But there are other people in our world and many of them are having an experience that is different from our own.

So I am not giving up on a Merry Christmas.  I’m on a roll actually.  For the past few years, it has happened for me.  It has to do with thinking more of others and thinking more of God. (both quantitatively and qualitatively)

This week, I get to go to the Nursing Home with Jean, to distribute some gifts to the residents.  I can just about guarantee that I won’t be thinking of Karl during that time.  I get to practice with Vera who is playing in church next Sunday.  That is a privilege and I’ll be so busy trying to follow her that I’ll forget about me.  I’ll give Alice a guitar lesson.  That will be fun because I know that I can teach her and I remember how good it felt when I was learning to play the guitar.  That makes me happy to think about sharing a skill.  I get to serve a wonderful local church this week.  Really … one that I love because it is so unusual and I needed that more than you can ever appreciate.  You wondered if you were too different.  My heart sang as I discovered each nuance of the working of God in the lives of our fellowship.  I know it was difficult but I am glad that you stepped away from the status quo.  That took courage.

I do feel bad about the message yesterday.  I always enjoy hearing you talk more about your own experience with God.  And I wanted to finish the message … but God knows and I am trusting Him with the results.

Lord jesus … be with our folks this week in whatever experience of life they know.  I ask that you would make yourself more real than their circumstance.  Be bigger than their problems and strong in their weakness and failing.  Pick them up when they stumble.  Love them in their most critical moments as an ever-loving Father only could.  Let the scriptures bring light to their path.  Make them hope for those who have lost hope.  Build your Kingdom here and now, I pray.  Amen.