It's Never too Late...

Time. Despite all our time saving technology, there never seems to be enough to do everything we need to do, and at the bottom of the list (where we put ourselves), the things we want. At the end of the day or the week you find yourself frustrated that you didn't get certain things done and empty because you didn't get the fulfillment you'd hoped from taking other time for something to refresh your spirit. It didn't work out the way you thought. Once again you face another day or week feeling drained, with too much ahead of you to do. You're already behind before you start.

Have you considered revisiting your list to see what's really on there? If you examine it as someone else might (out of habit everything looks essential to our eyes), you may find at the heart of it is a person who's overloaded with worry, and that staying busy helps you feel you're doing everything you can to stave off whatever it is that's at the bottom of your fears. Because fear (another word for worry) is most often central to what's driving us. I believe God would say it's time to get a new list!

Life has taught me that God's principles are more real with every passing year. When times are tough, they become more valid and vital to our survival (as well as our prosperity). As people we are not different from earlier generations and especially when things are thin it's time to clear the decks and regroup. Circle the wagons and draw strength from one another in fellowship and peace from renewing our faith and in celebration. Time to revisit what's really important, even if that means borrowing from the faith of your friends when yours is feeling a little faint. This is where God lives. He is waiting to meet you in your doubt, fear, pain and anger to bring you peace of mind and most of all, real and true Hope. He longs for you to feel the Love, security, joy and peace He promises in His Word. Your peace of mind is so important to God that the command to "fear not" appears in every book of the Bible.

In the last few weeks of Lent, as we walk with Jesus through His temptation, pain, crucifixion and the ultimate victory in His resurrection, let's come together in the opportunities for worship and renewal and begin again with worship and fellowship being central to our new list. It's never too late to put aside old ways. Never too late for hope and joy. In this day and age, I'd say it's right on time!

"For where your treasure is..."

There is a comfortable rhythm to the “seasons” of the church year which are similar to the changing seasons in our New England climate. It was a joyful thing the other day to once again see the sap buckets hanging on the sugar maple trees around the yard of the parsonage because this means spring really IS coming! The sap is running and that means the earth is preparing to send forth new life into every living thing. This, my friends, includes us! This is what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about: preparing the way for new life, new growth, stronger limbs, more and better fruit to come as a result, and new sweetness sprung from the ashes of old sorrows. Who would think, for example, that from deep within the gray hardness of the sugar maple tree would gush clear, bountiful liquid which from the Native Americans we learned to boil down into a healthy, luxurious sweet syrup? In recent years we’ve discovered that maple syrup is one of the few sweeteners which are more kind to the system as it doesn’t cause a sudden jump in insulin requirements. One more way in which God provides not only for us to just “survive” or “get by”, but gives us the very best --- HIS very best, as we are His children whom He loves.
Lent is a time between the depth of winter and the brightness of spring which provides us the perfect opportunity to become reoriented to just who we are, as in “Whose” we are. We are God’s children, heirs to Christ and His kingdom. This is our time to prepare the way to receive all that this means: joyful, spirit-filled, faith-filled and faithful living. New life in every way, in the here and now, right here on earth.
Ash Wednesday is a perfect time to get back to the basics: God will and does provide everything which we, His children need. Realize that Lent is our time, 40 days, to diligently return to the basics. To pare back from earthly luxuries which distract us from the fullness of life Jesus came for us to have: warm relationships with Him and with others, gladness from the everyday beauty which surrounds us, reconciliation and forgiveness, putting aside shackling and poisonous bitterness, and renewal of a meaningful, joyful satisfaction of giving deeply so that others may have restoration in their life.
Throughout Lent, I’d like you to consider this verse, meditate upon it, and delve deeply into it. Daily set aside quietness for yourself in listening, as the Lord will speak to you personally about what it means specifically to you and your growth: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matt. 6:21
Bidding you the peace of Christ!