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Dear Saints: January 2004
Great is our God and greatly to be praised! I trust you have had a great Christmas and New Year. It is now 2004, and we get to go through that adjustment of remembering to write "04" instead of "03" on checks and letters. A new year means a fresh start and endless possibilities. Oh how sweet change can be!!
Speaking of change, have you noticed the additional traffic light they are putting on McCausland Avenue by the Olympia restaurant? When I saw them making preparations for yet another stoplight on McCausland, (a road I travel probably every day of my life.) I thought to myself, "Great, another light to make my life even more difficult." I mean, why are they putting another stop light so near the one at McCausland and Mitchell? Can’t they see there is already a traffic light less than 100 yards down the road? I saw the new stoplight as just one other thing to slow down my day. That’s when it hit me, somebody, I don’t know who decides these issues, knew that we, the community, needed a light there to do just that - slow us down.
Doesn’t God do that in our lives? We live in a society that is on fast forward. We race to the next appointment listed in our palm pilot knowing that we have to hurry if we are going to get through all the appointments for that day. We have express check out lines at grocery stores; and drive-through windows at banks and restaurants. Everybody seems to be in a hurry and it is easy to get caught up with that same mind set. It didn’t take long for the new light on McCausland to catch me. While I began to complain to myself about the inconvenience, God spoke to my heart and said "You can use this time to talk to me, and by the way, I have some more traffic lights under construction in your life to slow you down, because we need some time for each other." We can be so busy doing the work of God that we miss spending time with the one we claim to be serving. May this New Year be a time in our lives that we slow down not only to smell the roses but to praise the one who made them. I thank God for the new light on McCausland now, because when I am stopped by it I will be reminded to slow down in my life to do what really matters and that is spend time with Him.
We have a special service coming up the last Saturday in January, the 31st at 7:00 p.m. It will be a joint service that we will be doing with Maplewood Methodist Church. This service is set aside just for praise and worship! There will be specials and plenty of music. Please plan to attend. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, let’s use this time as one of God’s stoplights – to slow down and reflect on His presence. Sometimes after the holidays people can get the "blues" so we will plan on praising the "blues" away that night!
Pausing to Praise!
Pastor Rick
