Pastor’s Perspective December 5, 2024

The eight-day week that starts the Sunday before Thanksgiving and ends the Sunday after our national holiday is my favorite time of the year to be on our little island.  Two fantastic mornings of worship, the community Thanksgiving filled with fellowship and feasting, family members and friends returning to the island for the holiday, the actual day of Thanksgiving with more fellowship and feasting, and the camaraderie of the holiday market combine to create an extended week filled with love, laughter, joy, and lots of really good food.  It would be difficult to cram much more into the week, which is in keeping with the busyness of the broader holiday season that has now officially begun.

The challenge that I face, and perhaps you experience it too, is that I was completely exhausted by the time this past Sunday afternoon rolled about.  The combination of personal and community obligations had kept me going full-out for that stretch of days, so while my joy meter was registering full, my physical and mental meter was empty.  That’s a dangerous place for me to be, because when I’m exhausted, I am far less gracious and kind than normal – almost as if I am burning through my reserves of joy just to keep me functioning.  If I am depending on my joy to sustain me, I am far less likely to share it with others, and that’s not much fun.  It certainly is not a good way to follow such a great week, so my particular remedy is to find time to just shut everything else down and be still.

We cannot give what we do not have.  Fortunately, if we look at the life of Jesus, we see that a normal part of his routine was to find time when he could escape from everyone else to just spend time alone with his Father.  In the sixth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, in the wake of having fed thousands of his followers with just five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus dismisses the crowd as well as his twelve disciples so that he can be alone.  Jesus then hikes up the side of a mountain so that he can spend time in prayer, free from the constant demands of those who look to him for wisdom and miracles.  After one of the most significant miracles of his earthly ministry, Jesus sought to be directly reconnected with God without distractions.

For many of you this holiday season, your schedule is already filled to the breaking point with family and social commitments.  Even though each one of those obligations is meant to be a joyous event, it will be easy to get run down over the course of the next few weeks.  Heck, even just looking at the calendar can be draining.  So, may I encourage you to add just a few more things to your calendar?  Deliberately carve out some time for yourself, when you can spend time alone with God away from the demands of the rest of the world, to allow for your tanks to be refilled.  It is hard to spread the Christmas cheer when you are too tired to smile, and we will all be dealing with certain people in our lives for whom we need that extra dose of grace, so make sure that your tanks aren’t on empty.  After all, this is the most wonderful time of the year! Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron