A note from Pastor Travis 11/12/20

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Dear FUMC Family and Friends,

Everyday this week, my father has been sending me photos of Christmas decorations around town. Most of these decorations are part of the town’s holiday display. While I love Christmas and cannot wait to decorate the parsonage, I am unsettled every year by people’s rush to get to Christmas, skipping over Thanksgiving in the process. I think it is especially true this year.

Yes, 2020 has been a difficult year, and many people may not feel like giving thanks. Yet, developing an attitude of thanksgiving is more important this year than most. As people of faith the source of our gratitude isn’t found in our current circumstances but in the presence of God in our lives. For, even in difficult times, God is with us, offering strength and hope. Developing a sense of gratitude when things are difficult helps us put the reality of current circumstances into a larger understanding of God’s presence both in our lives and in our world. Developing an attitude of gratitude in difficult times not only made hard times more bearable but gives us a deeper appreciation for all of life.

The scripture is filled with examples of who have found strength and grace in hard times. In Psalm 42 we read: “My soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise God, my help and my God.”

The psalmist finds hope in remembering when in the past they were able to gather with the community and praise God, and hope in the knowledge that there would come a time again when they would be able to praise God. It is the experience of God’s presence in the past and the hope of God’s presence in the future, which helps us know God’s presence in the present, even when God feels far away. Offering thanks to God in our current circumstance shapes how we experience the difficulties that we face and helps us find grace in the middle of the storm.

This is why Thanksgiving Day is more important this year than in most. Setting aside a day dedicated to giving thanks to God in the middle of all that is happening in our nation and our world will guide us through our grief and worry and lead us to green pastures and by still water.

So, let’s not rush past Thanksgiving to get to Christmas. Instead, let us pause and give thanks for the blessings that can be found in 2020.

As we do this, I offer Psalm 42 as a source of inspiration and strength. 
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Travis

Psalm 42

As a deer longs for flowing streams,   so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God,   for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food   day and night, while people say to me continually,   ‘Where is your God?’

  These things I remember,   as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,   a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise God,   my help and my God.  

My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. By day the Lord commands God’s steadfast love, and at night his song is with me,   a prayer to the God of my life.  

I say to God, my rock,   ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully   because the enemy oppresses me?’ As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually,   ‘Where is your God?’  

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise God my help and my God.