05 Dec Note from our Pastor – December 2018

Too Busy to Rest

Are you starting to feel it? The business of the Christmas season? I am.

When I look at the December calendar it is full, and I am starting to get tired just thinking about all the things to do and places to be. The truth is that these are all wonderful things, right? The people we are with, the events we attend, the gifts, the cooking and baking, the songs, these are all good things. That’s why I am thankful for this season of Advent. It slows us down and it gives us perspective. Advent helps us to not get sucked into the Christmas whirlwind where we find ourselves rushing headlong into December 25th without catching our breath. Advent helps us to stop and breath and to rest. Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 11 that he has come to give us rest. Don’t you find it ironic that the season of celebrating the birth of the one who came to give us rest happens for many of us to be the least restful season of the year?

Advent gives us that rest our Lord Jesus has promised; it turns our eyes onto the very reason of our celebrating, the coming of our Lord Jesus who indeed is our rest. Advent helps to give us the proper perspective throughout the four weeks before Christmas. It helps us to slow down and to think about our need for a Christmas Day. It is a season of anticipation where we continue to reflect on all the promises of God made good in Christ Jesus, and these promises are for you and me: an eternal King, a victorious Redeemer, an atoning Savior – all wrapped up in swaddling clothes.

Let’s slow down together. Let’s sing songs of anticipation that give us perspective. Let’s sit under God’s Word together and hear of His promises for us that found their “Amen” in Jesus. Let’s travel together through this blessed season as a family of God to give thanks and rejoice that indeed our Savior has come to give us rest now and for eternity.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen.

Pastor Darrin Sheek