November 2007
What a whirlwind this fall has been. It seems like just yesterday that summer was winding down and we found ourselves scrambling to get ready for the start of a new school year; now here we are moving into November already. And November promises to maintain this status quo; the same hectic pace. As a church, we’ll be hitting the ground running with our church charge conference on the 1st and our month long stewardship program beginning on the 4th followed by various meetings, bible studies, a blood drive and the community Thanksgiving Service, (that we are hosting this year), immediately followed by our community Thanksgiving dinner and the Christmas Parade the following day. And those are just some of the highlights…
But has this really been any busier than usual? Probably not; it’s become more the norm to get caught up in the business of life; not only in the church but even more so in our own lives. It is so easy to get caught up in the dealings of our own lives, that we push God right out of the picture without giving it a second thought. It’s so easy to simply not have time for God, yet being in relationship with God is the very foundation of who we are; in a nut shell, it’s the reason we’re here – the reason we were created in the first place. And whether we admit or not, it is only by God’s love for us and his abundant grace that we continue to be here from one day to the next. Yet, how easily we put that out of our mind; how easily we forget – not only in relation to our own affairs, but also in relation to all that we do for the church. We get so caught up in “what” we do; we forget about “why” we do it; in doing so we also forget to be thankful. All too often we need to be reminded…
Psalm 46 reminds us to “be still and know that I am God”. It is in the stillness, when we intentionally break away from all the business that surrounds us that we can come before the God of the universe and intentionally seek to be in his presence. It is only in that quietness that we can begin to sense his presence and hear his voice. But to hear, we have to listen. Richard J. Foster says that to be “tuned in to God” we must first “quiet our fleshly activity and begin listening to the silent thunder of the Lord of hosts.” We need to be still and know that God is God. When we recognize who God really is, we can’t help but be thankful and sense a longing grow in our spirits to serve the God who loves us.
I believe that our predecessors in this great nation had the wisdom and insight to set aside a day in November where we could come together as families and communities; apart from the normal business of life to share a meal in fellowship and love. They set aside a time for us to intentionally focus on what we have to be thankful for and offer up in gratitude, our thanks and praise to the God who makes all things possible…
The God who loved each and every one of us so much that he offered up his only Son to restore what had been broken. What we had broken. Through him, all things are made new. He offers us hope in our hopelessness; wholeness and new life in our brokenness. Why would we not want to come before our God every day in thanksgiving? Thank God that we can.
Grace and Peace, The Rev. Rob Hughes
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