From the Wilder View - November 2008

I write this article in the middle of October with so many unknowns surrounding us. The stock market is continuing to ricochet up and down; reaction to the bail-out or ‘rescue plan’ is not what anyone anticipated, 6,500 homes in the St. Louis area are in some stage of foreclosure (1 in 188 homes), and gas prices are staggeringly high. Several families in our own congregation are experiencing challenging times with their financial situations, we have people who are sick in the hospital, and the uncertainty of who will sit in the Oval office in 2009 is still upon us. I should write about Thanksgiving because this is the November newsletter and ‘every pastor writes an article about being thankful in November, don’t they?’ J Yet you will receive this article in early November and some of these very transient situations will have changed several times since I have penned this note. You might say, “Pastor, what do we have to be grateful for – the world is in such a mess!” And yet, we do have so very much to be thankful for. We just have to look at all of the blessings in balance with the challenges that every day brings us.

In November we will start a sermon series entitled ‘Creating an Attitude of Gratitude.’ The first Sunday will focus on being grateful for our past, the second Sunday is for the present, and the third is for our future. My personal goal for the sermon series is for all of us to begin to look at everything with a new attitude, an attitude of gratitude. The Bible says in Habakkuk 3: 17-19 “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the field produces no food, though there are no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Sovereign God is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, God enables me to go to the heights.” You see, our gratitude shouldn’t be dependent upon the ever changing situations of our world. Rather, we are encouraged to focus on God our creator, the God who created everything, the God who loves us with amazing, overwhelming care. When we focus on God and the wonder of God’s love for us then all of the things that we normally think of as being important become less and less important.

You see, we each choose how to look at every situation in our life. We can approach these times from an anxious, waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling, wondering how long we will be able to avoid total disaster, or we can live life expectantly, trusting God, knowing who God is and remembering how God has acted so faithfully in our lives in the past. If we look at the stock market through these eyes, it doesn’t matter if there is fruit on the vine or not because God will provide as God has provided in the past. We are just walking through another faith adventure and you just never know when God will show up with one of those uncanny miracles.

So here is the challenge to us for November (and maybe for the rest of our lives) Let us try always to look for something good to come from any situation that we are currently experiencing. Let us live life knowing that God is active in our life and in our world. Let us approach each situation expectantly with the knowledge that God is not only still active, but is still doing miracles.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kathleen
lppastor@sbcglobal.net