Pastor's E-Letter 1/03/20

     This morning was the first time I have had to opportunity to get out and run since mid-December. Once my family arrived in town and the busyness of the season caught up with me, getting outside at 5 am wasn’t my priority. Starting over again today, it almost felt like my first time running. However, as I sit here writing this letter, I am reminded of my New Year Goals last year. At some, I succeeded. I completed my first half Marathon this last month and I competed in a fun-spirited CrossFit competition called Festivus. Both goals were fun. They took a lot of preparation, training, encouragement and great friends to work with. I also exceeded all my expectations in accomplishing those goals, finishing 15 minutes faster than expected at the race and winning a “Spirit Award” with my teammate at the Festivus Games. It always feels great to accomplish a stated goal.

     What’s tough is knowing the goals I didn’t meet. I fell short of meeting another personal goal for my physical health and have quite a bit more work to do. For the past few years, I have been working on a personal goal and put it up on the board at the gym each year. Three years in a row now. That stings just saying it out loud. You see, as much fun as reaching those other goals last year, this goal continues to be a struggle and one that isn’t going away anytime soon. When I come to the new year I like to look back on my goals and see how grace has interacted in my life to keep me going. Friends, family, even complete strangers in some ways have offered encouragement to keep me going, especially around the 2-hour mark during the half-marathon. There have been so many examples of people who helped me work through my goals, even when I slipped up, didn’t train as hard or missed a day in the gym. All the while grace seems to abound in the goals that I’ve completed and the ones I’m still working on.

     What I find interesting is how important grace is to any goal that we set, especially this time of year. Grace is the encouragement to know that when we fail, there is something there to offer us the next step in the right direction. When we want to give up, or just say “it’s not worth it”, or my favorite saying “I’ll start again tomorrow,” we find grace there beckoning to keep going. Grace was there before we knew we needed to change, grace is there to beckon us onward and grace is what will be the thing we proclaim the most when we reach our goals. Wesley would call it prevenient, justifying and sanctifying grace.

     Where do you need grace in your goals, in your life, relationships and so much more? Where can you recognize that grace is there with a hand out to you calling you back into working towards that goal? For me, it was a text message from a friend inviting me to get out and run this morning. I thank God for that kind of grace. It never fails, it never gives up. I pray for you to see that in your goals and in every part of your life in the new year. One way to start thinking about how that grace has entered our lives is through worship. This Sunday we will be looking at John 1:1-18 and discovering what a Grace-Filled New Year looks like.

     Looking forward to a wonderful day of worship with you on Sunday!

With Grace & Peace,
Augie

Pastor's E-letter 10/11/19

An area of improvement that was identified early on for me in my path to become a pastor was my health. Part of the work that I started, along with other changes, was to begin going to the gym. I have a good friend who was in my small group that invited me to join him at Trinity Fitness in Suntree. They do a short devotion to start the class, then a warmup, then what they call a “Battle.” The first day included a lot of burpees. They were horrible. I can’t believe I went back. But I did. I have been going for almost three years now.

There were two keys to me coming back. The first, and most important, was the community and encouraging people. I’m am a strong extrovert and I derive a lot of my energy from being around people. The second thing was back-squats. I’m known around the gym for my love of back-squats. In a very short description, you load a barbell with weight, place it on your back, and go into a squat. There is a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea. When I first started, I got a little zealous about doing the back-squat movement for the day and loaded the bar with 335lbs. When I went into the movement I got stuck at the bottom and had a moment of terror go across my mind.

Thankfully, we train for these kinds of moments. I knew how to get out from under the bar and “bail the weight” as we call it around the gym. Learning how to safely use the weights and what to do in case of moments like this are some of the core of what we do at the gym. Since then I have become a trainer at the gym, and I work with people to help them understand what to do when the bar gets too heavy.

What made me think about this is my calendar that is currently overloaded, my laundry is piled up beyond reason, and all the needs of the world around us. The weight of all of that and so much more can be scary. We look around at our lives, our families, and the world and see so much need. The weight of all those things weigh on us heavily and we can get that same sense of fear as I did when I was pinned underneath the bar. That’s real and it’s genuine, and, sometimes, needed to get a real perspective on the world.

However, we are trained for this. Like the gym, we train for what it means to recognize when we need God. We train to “bail the weight” and seek out God who teaches us how to handle all that the world is throwing our way. We aren’t called to carry it all. We aren’t called to live under the pressure of our concerns and fears. Whatever that weight may be for you, whether it is a physical weight, the emotional weight of grief, or the weight of our possessions or finances. None of that weight is meant to be carried alone or to the point of feeling overwhelmed.

What we are called to do is to follow Jesus and the way he walks through his earthly ministry. Jesus teaches us to pray. He teaches us to know that God wants the best for us and that isn’t living under the pain of all this. God wants us to follow his teachings, through Jesus, because it is a better way. Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We know eating well and exercising is good for us, but we still struggle to follow the better path for our personal health. (I still do.) We know prayer and God’s path for us is a much better way to live, but we still struggle with it. Anyone who has worked towards a personal goal and achieved it can tell you that feeling of relief. They will even tell you "I don’t know how I did life any other way." Many Christians will say "I don’t know how I did life before God." I’m thankful to know that God was with me before and God continues to be there now to show us a better way.

What weight are you holding that needs to be let go? How can your time with God show you the training God has for us?

I hope worship is one of those ways for you and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday as we continue in our “Dear Church” sermon series. Come and hear what God has for us, no matter what season we are in.

With Grace & Peace,

Augie