July

The Treasure Where We Are

"Summertime and livin' is easy". I hope you're finding some time to relax and enjoy summer vacation. We all need time to rest and decompress. When you're away I miss seeing you in worship. When Micah was little and we were on vacation on Sunday morning I'd tell him we were going to go to church and sometimes he'd say "we're on vacation why do we have to go?" I explained we go because we love God and God has blessed us with everything we have, God has blessed us with life and so we're going to go say "Thank you" to God and worship God.

We need to worship. Worship reminds us who we are. Worship nourishes our souls. Worship is that wondrous time when we receive once again God's grace, forgiveness, hope and love. We come together to be the church.

God binds us to one another and empowers us to do things together that we cannot do alone. We saw three beautiful examples of that at our refugee celebration luncheon. It was so wonderful to see the Harbas family and the Tulasz family as well as having Abdi with us. We can look at them and see what a wonderful difference we have made in their lives. We also know how very much they have blessed us.

We need each other. We learn from each other and together we are able to be God's light shining in the world.

Together we are able to feed the hungry, welcome the homeless and bring hope to those who are in despair.

We have been given this priceless treasure, the good news of Jesus Christ. Through our Lord Jesus Christ we receive the treasure of new life. God has placed in our hearts all we need. God has entrusted to us this treasure. May we find ways to share this rich legacy of hope with all that we meet. I like what Barbara Brown Taylor once wrote, "The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are."

Here we are, crowned with God's glory. Let us shine, together; let us shine God's light and love to all we meet.

Cindy