For January 2012

Dear Friends,

At the last Council on Ministries meeting we talked about our lack of celebration of the things that we have been able to accomplish. As I reflect further on this observation, I think they are right. We don't celebrate as much as we should. The first possible reason that we have muted our celebrations might be that we have a very high level of expectation and that whatever we have accomplished possibly could have been bigger or better. (Don't we always have thoughts that we could have done better or that there was probably more that we could have done?) Another possible reason for our lack of celebration is that we might feel that we shouldn't feel proud and braggadocios about the things we do. (Pride goes before a fall. Christians aren't supposed to let pride be their motivation for doing good to others. We should always give God the credit because we can do nothing on our own. He is the source of all that we have and so He is the one who should get all the credit and the praise.) So, we feel good for a short time and then it is time to get back to work because there is always more to do. There may be many other reasons for our lack of celebration, but let me suggest one more. We might not celebrate as we should because we don't want to make ourselves look better in comparison to others or more blessed or more worthy of being blessed. (Christians are blessed people, but not because of anything we have done. We are only worthy of anything because God loves us and makes us worthy.)

Well, maybe that's over-analyzing our reasons for not celebrating as much as we should, so let's celebrate these accomplishments from last year: (We don't have to publish them in the paper but we can be proud and happy about them within our own congregation!)

That's something to celebrate!

Rev. Mike