Hi Church,
It is so great to see those of you in worship who were either iced in or visiting warmer climates! We are stronger when we are together. Lent offers us many opportunities to reflect and be together. I won’t mention them all here, but we are blessed.
On Wednesday nights, Bob Goff, author of Everybody Always, is challenging us to love more widely and to be more intentional about the ways we love one another. I retold one of his stories in worship:
Bob tells the story of selling his house and moving next door. He got to choose who would become his neighbor. And he didn’t choose someone like him. He didn’t choose someone whose family make-up and life stage reflected his own. He chose Carol. She was a single women with no extended family and from a different ethnic background, and Bob chose her to share life’s journey. She was open to this idea. As they got to know one another, they spent birthdays and Christmas’ together. She became a part of their family, and Bob checked in with her every day. When Carol became sick, Bob went out and bought walkie talkies for the two of them in a childlike way, so that she would never feel alone. And who doesn’t want to play on a walkie talkie… “Come in Carol. Over and out.” What could have been for Carol, a terribly lonely time was changed because Bob Goff intentionally choose to widen his circle of friends and people that he did life with.
There are so many ways we can reach a little farther and include more people in our circle of love. This Lent as we follow Jesus to the cross and resurrection, may we extend our love as individuals and as a church just a bit farther. God is so good to show us the way.
Peace be with you,
Rebecca