So Thankful

I wanted to THANK everyone who was part of this year's Christmas Shoebox effort! Thank you to each one who took a shoebox, went to the store and filled it with fun things and returned it to the church! Thank you to all the ladies who came and packed the boxes and got them ready to take to the Post Office! Thank you to Pam Clark for spear heading this effort again this year! Wow, that is 8 BIG boxes of fun things our missionaries, Linda and Brian Staub will be able to reach out to the village of St. Michael with! We have included the Book Of Hope for each age category as well as warm hats that were knitted for each person.

We did not think to keep a list over the several years we have been partnering with Alaska missionaries, but the places I can remember sending boxes to are: Emmonak, Tetlin, Beaver, Angoon, Ft. Yukon and perhaps other places. Some villages we have sent boxes to more than once.

I know from personal greetings from our missionaries how appreciated these gifts are when received in the villages. This is a great example of true partnership with our missionaries as they endeavor to minister to the least reached people of our enormous state. Each box is a message of love and generosity and....HOPE!

God bless all who have made this effort so rewarding again this year!

Stressed Out?

I have had a number of people that I know, care for and pastor who have made known to me some huge obstacles they are facing in life just in the last few days. It is amazing how many people seem to be carrying a huge load, more than the usual busy schedule right now. It really seems like a season of spiritual/physical attack over a great number of people at present.

Isn't it like the devil to pile on when life is already difficult? Just when circumstances are taxing he seems to come along and increase the stress level by adding things that stretch us even further. If you are feeling what I am talking about, you are by no means walking your journey alone.

Something that I counsel people as their pastor when they hit these unexpected trials is to be deliberate about setting boundaries in your life. When we take extraordinary hits from the enemy, we must find places in our lives to rest and replenish ourselves. This means being able to say, "no" to the right things. I said that intentionally about saying "no" to the right things. Sometimes we in an effort to find immediate comfort for our empty emotional and spiritual tanks we opt out of everything including the very things that actually assist in replenishing our reserves.

The important thing in our crises and trials is to stay connected to the people who love us and care about us the most. Stay involved in your church, keep teaching your Sunday School class, continue to attend and serve on a regular basis. Now this doesn't mean saying "yes" to everything, but do stay involved. God has intended service to be a life-giving exercise. Cut off our service and we can collapse into isolated and disconnected despair.

Do find ways to create "margin" in your life. Margin is those empty spaces in your day, week and schedule that are empty with a purpose. Filling empty time with activity that is empty of meaning and purpose is not what I am talking about. Creating margin is making yourself take a "time out" to sit and listen to God, to talk to Him and to read His Word. David in his most noted 23rd Psalm includes the words, "...He makes me to lie down" (v.2). Isn't interesting that we must be made to lie down? Why does God make us do this? Because we need it. He created rest for us to renew, replenish and restore (v.3) ourselves.

Another huge help when we are feeling overwhelmed is to talk to someone who is trusted, who loves you and is not too eager to tell you how to correct your problem. In short, someone who is a believer and is good at listening. Sometimes being able to talk about what you are feeling to someone who cares is very therapeutic. Opening up to someone who is caring is good for our soul.

An important help in times of crisis is to have "financial margin". It is too often the case that we live to the edge of our means and even spend more than we make on a monthly basis. Scaling back on our lifestyle, creature comforts and luxuries and putting that income toward paying down debt and increasing savings is a way to create a financial margin that can carry us when the unexpected slams us. "A penny saved is a penny earned" is now considered too quaint to be meaningful. It is still good advice and it does create margin for the "rainy day" that is inevitably coming our way. When crisis comes and we are already over spent it compounds the problem. Better to think ahead financially during good times than to assume we can spend more than we make and that it will always be OK. Our entire nation is hurting because of this pervasive mindset.

Now, a final thought for those who may not be in crisis at the moment but maybe know someone who is, reach out to them. Communicate with them. Do something with them or for them. You may never get an invitation to do so, so you may have to initiate the idea. Don't be afraid of being rejected, it really isn't about you. Regardless, let that person know you are thinking of them and praying for them. You can't do any better than that.

2 Cor. 1:3-5 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now is a good time to put that into practice.