Pastor's Letter - August
Pastor’s Letter
August, 2019
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
"Where's Daddy?"
That's what I keep hearing as I type this article. It's relatively early on a Thursday morning. I woke up in the bedroom and moved over to the computer so that I could type this letter and other pieces for the newsletter. In the meantime, Timmy and Michelle both woke up, and Michelle hurried Timmy downstairs because she knew I had work to do.
"Where's Daddy?"
"He's upstairs, Timmy. He has work to do. Leave him alone."
Thus begins the process. Timmy shows up, I play with him a little bit, I go back to type this, Michelle takes him back downstairs. Lather, rinse, repeat.
In those moments when he sneaks back up, we are racing trucks, or we are fixing pretend wounds, or we are Spider-Man and the Hulk saving the world from the bad guys. Then I'm supposed to get back to this computer and have wise words for all of you who are reading this.
Let me give this a shot.
This whole process makes me think about the importance of play, or in a more general sense, the importance of recreation. It's summer, and many of us have either been on vacation or perhaps we might go on one, but I even think about how sometimes we make that process more work than maybe it should be.
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus spends a large amount of time at social gatherings. He is always in the middle of celebrations and festivals, probably more than in any of the other Gospels. Is Luke trying to tell us something? In a general sense, those were times of play, or times of recreation, for those in Jesus' culture.
How much time do you set aside for play? I think those moments of play are holy moments. We get to relax and unwind and just simply be (some of us have a hard time doing that). We discover things about ourselves and our relationships with others there. We might even discover God waiting there for us.
Our work is important, don't get me wrong. But as the summer winds down, find that time where you can relax yourself and find God in the midst.
See you along the way. I'm going to go play with some trucks with my kid for a few minutes before I head out for the day.
Pastor Brian