Dear Beloved Community,

Together, we will face some serious challenges as we enter 2011.  The world seems to be speeding up and shrinking every minute and with our social network hormones on full we experience emotional ups and downs almost simultaneously.  There is an awareness of more information coupled with an extreme sensitivity to those demands like never before.  Just the lists of what happened to each of us from this past year would be overwhelming to most of our ancestors not for one year but for the entire course of their lives!  We seem to live more life in one day than our parents did over several years.

When asked recently what surprised him most about life?  Billy Graham answered, rather quickly, “It’s Brevity”.  We are talking about Billy Graham who is in his nineties and has led millions of people to the Lord.  Brevity, really?  It is shocking to me that his experience is the same as mine… it is all going by so fast!  I am so behind in my understanding of what it takes to move at the pace required that some days I pray the Lord will just slow it down so I can catch up.  I'm sure you have felt that as well.

As we realize our lives are not slowing down but instead moving faster, take time for a leisurely walk or just stop and breathe in the fresh mercies of our Lord as the New Year begins.  Maybe real transformation in our lives is to better understand and then be ready for the next turn... not because we've got our act together but as repentant sinners we are able to see our need and turn to Jesus. 

My prayer is Oh dear Lord, do ‘Come Quickly’ but until that happens slow me down so I can follow... I also pray that in 2011 we are set free to obey Isaiah 1:17 as we "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."

Called together into 2011 in Jesus’ love as we Worship, Care and Serve,

Scott