Pastor Ponderings
We have just begun the holy season of ADVENT. We’ve been through ADVENT before, but we come this year aware of the frightening currents in the world around us:
- North Korea tests yet another missile and this time shows it may well have the technical capability to reach nearly all of the continental the United States
- We watch our leaders on the national level who seem to be more interested in scoring points than building a just society for all.
- Each day we learn of another public figure accused of sexual misconduct and the #MeToo phenomenon reveals many lives have been affected by people who overstepped lines that should never be crossed.
- Gun violence that takes the lives of minorities and law enforcement, children, people from all walks of life. Mass shootings, accidental deaths, and suicides.
- The opioid epidemic that strikes down the young and the old, those from difficult situations as well as those from the best families.
As the nights grow longer and the darkness creeps upon us, Advent is a time to light a candle and hold up a beam of light. It is a time to turn to God for answers when life is so full of questions. If we come to the Lord with an open heart and a willingness to receive, we find that God stops down to meet us where we are.
God doesn’t leave us to our own worst fears, but God comes to be among us and offer us hope.
Blessings,
-Pastor Steve