From The Pastor's Desk - September 2016
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.” -Hebrews 10
Ever since my wife, Jackie, went to work full time for the Air Force our schedules have been mostly mismatched. For thirty years we had Mondays off together. We could catch morning coffee together many days and often dinner. We could sometimes even take Sunday evening through Tuesday morning. Now we work opposite shifts. When she comes home, I have to work, and when I can get free, she is working. We have to be very intentional if we want to spend time together (and we do want to spend time together).
Our culture used to have a “normal” schedule that most people kept. Now, it’s all over the place. Family members pass like ships in the night and it’s hard to find time to get together with friends or do the things we value like attending worship. Most people really want to worship God and feel better when they do. We grow closer to God. But it’s becoming harder. Sunday morning used to be a time when most people could worship God. But now people are filling Sunday mornings up with more and more activities. And summer gets even more difficult.
Relationships are like any living thing. I have watched my apple tree this summer in the heat and drought. It looked so strong and healthy in the spring with all the flowers and budding apples. As the tree endured the heat and drought, I noticed the tree looked ok, but it no longer had the energy to produce fruit. It needed all it had to produce leaves. Then the leaves began to fall. Fortunately, the rain came because I was worried the tree might die.
We have had a wonderful summer. All the sunshine and beautiful weather has given us even more things that keep us from church. But we need worship. Psalm 68 says, “God gave abundant showers, and refreshed His weary inheritance.” We need times of refreshing from God or we will slowly begin to die inside. At first we don’t notice the difference, but then we lose our fruitfulness and eventually we lose our joy and slowly our soul dies.
Jackie and I make a real effort to be with each other, because we don’t want to even think of what will happen if we don’t. Most people don’t intentionally kill relationships, they just neglect them to death. The same things happens with our relationship with God and the church.
God is faithful, He makes time for us…. It’s time to make time for God.
See you in worship,
Pastor Tom