Time to 'Look Up'

Hello Church,

How many verses in the Bible encourage you to be an optimist?  The answer is at the end of this blog.

As I stated Sunday, I am going to be on a mission in 2020.  I am going to take as many opportunities as possible to ‘look up’.  That is, to give praise before I complain; to compliment before I criticize; and to thank God for forgiving me before I condemn.

It’s an experiment for me.  I may end up not being very good at it... er... I mean, I might end up being very good at it.  It's time for a year where the cup is half full.  It's a personal revolution for me.  I'm going to turn it into a spiritual revolution for me.  And when pastors have revolution, it's hard not to have it impact the parish to some degree.

God gives us reason to live like things are looking up because they are looking up.  The God of Heaven and Earth provides us the story of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost every year which reminds us all the reasons we have to look at the naysayers of the world and say, 'but......'.

I think that if I don't do that, I am somehow failing my Call.  This isn't just about the non-believers of the world, but also about you believers who will forget that bad days are temporary and that good days are promised to us.

But don't take my word for it.  Take the Word for it.  The end of each Gospel defines the whole book of the Bible as a book of optimism.  Say what you want about the Fall, the book of Judges, Israel's plight, Job's sufferings, Jonah's stubbornness, Judas' betrayal, etc.  The end of each Gospel (as well as many wonderful lessons along the way) demand that we 'look up'.

How many verses in the Bible encourage you to be an optimist?  More than you need.

But we will explore several of them throughout the season of Epiphany and beyond.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Have A Confident Faith

Hello Church,

What tests your faith?  Is it Christmas?

The baby being born gives me confidence.  It's God speaking to me in a direct way.  God says to Joe, 'I love you.  Here is my gift to you'.  While this gift is to the whole world, in one perspective I see it as a gift to me specifically.  It is the ultimate proof that God loves me unconditionally.  Do you believe this?  Yes?

So why are you worried about whether or not you are loved?

Maybe you are not.  However, maybe you are one that spends your days showing other people why you should be loved.  You do nice things and help people.  You participate in charity and volunteer your time to work at church and send Christmas cards and buy gifts.  And if you can succeed and get one person to love you, then you feel good.  If you fail, you feel bad, maybe mad, certainly sad.

And then the next day you try again... and then again... and then again.  And you find your life filled with earning the love from others.  And your days become an emotional roller coaster as some weeks you are surrounded by the love of others and other weeks, no matter how hard you try, some just refuse to like you.

If this is you, here is my question:  Do you really believe in Christmas?

A confident Faith is rooted in love.  I am not confident in a lot of things.  I am not confident in my sports teams; my eating habits; my car; my fashion sense; my artistic ability; etc.  But I have learned that I am loved no matter what.  Not because I succeed in earning it, but because God reminds me from time to time (Christmas and Easter being 2 biggies), that He gives it freely. 

So I can go about day with a terrible amount of freedom.  I can do nice things and help people.  I can participate in charity and volunteer my time and send Christmas cards and buy gifts, unattached to any sort of success or failure.  The roller coaster still exists, but it isn't based on whether or not I am loved because I know I am loved by the most important person of my life.... my Creator.

I hope this Christmas boosts your confidence and you can be free.  May 2020 be a year of a confident Faith.

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas,

God is Good,

Pastor Joe

Returning To The Simple Christmas

Hello Church,

2020 is soon to be here.  With the new year, I have dreams and expectations.  I hope you have them too.

As such, I've been thinking how to connect with people.  Specifically, how can the church continue to connect with people.  In my opinion, this should be top priority of any church function.  Human-to-human connections is the pathway to leading people to God.  No one is going to listen to you about your Faith if they don't feel a connection to you......  don't know you or trust you.

In order for me to think this through, I need to push to the side other matters of the church.  Administrative functions, problem-solving dilemmas, secretarial work, preaching to the choir and appeasing the masses are some of the things I also involve myself in, good or bad.  These matters are not always insignificant distractions, but ultimately I seem to find myself immersed in them..... forgetting what I set out to think through to begin with.

And then on some random day I wake up and realize that for the past many days or weeks or even months I have failed to think about my initial task.... to help the church connect with people. 

This problem for me, ironically, seems to be at its height during high church holidays.... like Christmas and Easter.  I also realize that this problem is not isolated to clergy.  Other church leaders and congregants participate in the same problem.  However, I seem to identify it more regularly over the past 18 months or so. 

I want to introduce people to people.  I want to find people and establish a relationship of trust and confidence.  I want us, as a group, to find other groups to collaborate with.  I believe is is in such relationships that God makes Himself most obviously known.  There are days when I just want to love one another without having to fill out a form or have a meeting or check the calendar or update the budget or ..... well... I hope you get it.

So it is that I appreciate the manger scene.  Nothing complicated.  Just love.

I hope your Christmas is not complicated.  I hope you are connected to many who love you back.  I hope this next week will be merry.

God is Good,
Pastor Joe

The Optimism Of Christmas

Hello Church,

As I prepare to experience my 48th Christmas, the same challenges face me.  I won't list them all here, but I will focus on one of them....

Be positive.

This is sometimes a challenge for me at any time of the year.  I decided long ago that I will do what I can to not succumb to the tendency to think pessimistically, even in the most dire of situations.  I decided I will feed off the Faith I SAY I have in order to SHOW that I have it.  It is in this way I become a witness to my Faith in Christ.

Ironically, this can be especially difficult in the Advent/Christmas seasons.  I fully and freely admit that the attitudes we see during this time is skewed, express misunderstandings, be really bad theology, and be entire inappropriate.  The triggers that show up this time of year threaten to vault me into a grumpy mood.  But I resist!!! 

Be positive.

My goal is to not be Scrooge this year.  I'm going to focus on the good qualities of how we live into Christmas.  God is good because Jesus is born.  Jesus is born because God loves us and wants us to not despair, but to have hope in a better future.  Christmas is God's time of year.  I will focus on Him and be glad.

I hope you do too.

God is Good,
Pastor Joe