Church Family,
I just recently finished a novel (I can actually read books for fun now that my dissertation is finished!) called The Midnight Library. Basically, the protagonist of the story, Nora Seed, is given the opportunity to look through a “book of regrets” and then she can choose to go back and try to live her life by changing those decisions that she had regrets over. Now, I don’t want to give away the ending of the book, but what was interesting was how she got to live multiple lives and still couldn’t seem to find the perfect one. She was caught up in regrets and wasn’t appreciative of the life she had.
In a similar vein, I think we can fall into that same habit. We focus on what we don’t have and long for more, rather than being content and thankful for everything God has given us. The past 21 months of the pandemic have been hard. However, I know that God has been working even in the midst of these hard times. God is still on His throne, and He is still in the business of healing people and changing lives!
That is why Thanksgiving is such an important holiday. We need to take stock and count our blessings and be thankful for everything God has given us. It is so important for us to give praise and glory to God!
We have a couple of opportunities for our church to focus on God’s blessings to us during difficult circumstances. First, on November 21, we are going to have a special testimony Sunday. Rather than our normal worship services, we are going to have multiple members of our congregation sharing stories of how God has been faithful and good to them. I believe it is going to be an inspiring and encouraging Sunday as we get to hear different ways that God has been at work in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ!
Second, our deacon body will be holding their annual Thanksgiving Day service on that holiday morning at 8:00 a.m., November 25. Start off your holiday morning by coming to our chapel and being led in worship by our deacons. It is going to be a great way to get our hearts focused on what is most important on Thanksgiving.
It can be too easy to focus on the negatives. To think about regrets and missed opportunities rather than to count our blessings. Let’s pray that God will allow us to see how blessed we are. We were enemies of God, but now, through the cross, we are redeemed! Our lives may be difficult, but we have so much to be thankful for!
I look forward to worshipping with you and recounting God’s many blessings to our church family in the weeks ahead!
In Him,
Pastor Zach