MESSAGE FROM THE MANSE
REFLECTION FOR THE MONTH:
“WHEN WE WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW, WE WASTE TODAY.”
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to wish you all a better New Year. It’s that time of year again. We are going to lose weight, exercise more, get out of debt, stick to a budget, save for the future, and spend more time with family.
We make resolutions because we want to bring change to bear on our circumstances. We want to improve ourselves and our quality of life, and the top resolutions, for most people, tend to revolve around the same three poles: money, health, and family.
Anyway, after the two years we have just endured and no real let up, thanks to new strains of the virus so readily developing, it seems to be a particularly intelligent creature and one to be given a great deal more respect than many seem to understand.
My message is to have faith in God's purpose. I have been fortunate, in the fact that I don't have many occasions for contact with strangers and have of course been careful to follow guidelines. The horror of losing loved ones is always stressful, but humans are amazingly resilient and we will come through, eventually, to happier times; you have better believe it. Don't ask God to step in and stop it all, do ask Him to help us build our immunity to the point where we can push it aside like the common cold. It is just another lesson we've had to learn and some are slower to learn than others, which is why it spreads so easily.
My heart goes out to anyone who has lost someone close to them, but rejoice in your amazing survival; life is still good and will be happy once more. If you've coped with the last two years you have learned how to cope for another two, if need be, but I think we can only improve from here, which gives a more positive outlook - a more pressing problem is Climate Change, pray for a miracle, they do happen and we must have the patience of Job to continue all we can individually do towards what is needed to save our wonderful world.
My friends fall into two categories, those who bring in the new year with celebration and those who go to bed, waking up the next day to a new day and the first day of a new year. I wonder which category you fall in and why? I love to be awake and in the company of the people I care about. In my family, we have a tradition of going outside and spending a few moments in the freshness of the first moments of the first day of the year. It says for me that there are new possibilities, that surprises await. It does not mean that everything will be okay, but that there will be opportunities for change and growth. How do you feel about 2022, very early to ask though? What do you need to discard and overcome? What do you need to embrace? Our lives are busy is the mantra we hear, from those in full time work and raising children, from the retired, it is good to remember at the beginning of this year that when God journeys with us in our activities, it makes a difference! The great Swiss theologian once wrote these words,
“We must once and for all give up trying to be self-made individuals. Let us cease preaching by ourselves, being right by ourselves, being sensible by ourselves, improving the world by ourselves. God wants to do everything, certainly through us and with us and never without us, but our participation in what he does must naturally originate and grow out of his power, not ours. O, how we could then speak with one another. For whatever does not grow out of God produces smoke, not fire. But what is born of God overcomes the world.”
Let us as we embrace a brand-new year and delight in its possibilities, remembering that we are not called to be disciples of Jesus in our own strength. Let us examine our lives and where the guidance of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not there, let us repent and ask for guidance, wisdom and strength. Let us stop trying to do it all without the help of God. I wish you a very happy 2022 and look forward to your continuing love, support and prayers as we journey together to serve our Saviour Jesus Christ, in this time and place. Let us remember the covenant service promise at our first Sunday Service of this year, and offer our time, energy, talent in serving the Lord and His people.
God be with you all, as we strive to overcome every impediment to our freedom in our everyday living.
Keep praying for West Horsley Methodist Church and her community. God bless your home abundantly in this year of our Lord.
Thank you.
George