January 2022 Pastor's Pen

Well, we have made it through another year. We are all making New Year hopes and wishes. I hope starting to attend church is one of them. If you already attend church l hope one of your wishes is to become more dedicated in your spiritual life and more dedicated to your church life. We start a New Year looking ahead to all the possibilities. It can also be a deep cleansing breath of making it through a tough past year. A year where you felt darkness all around you. A new year can make you believe of a better way, a better year of making smarter choices. Remember there is always hope, always someone to take your hand and lead you out of the darkness. For that to happen you must be willing to step out of the darkness and into the light. Our Lord and Savior never leaves us, it is all of us who let go of his hand and goes their own way. Leaving God behind is never a better way. It may seem like it is easier to go on your own accord, do what you want, whenever you want to. We live in a world where everyone wants to get things now. In the darkness we think there are no rules it is okay to do what you want. Just get in line. Picked from a menu and drive through with our order of what makes us happy today. We may feel good with our order today but tomorrow, next week, next month we may look back and see that our quick order for happiness was not as great as we thought. Only God can make our lives great! Only God can turn our sorrow into peace. We stop listening to God because it isn't easy to follow his rules for our lives. But He knows best. He knows what the future holds. He knows what His plan is for each of us. It is not easy to be patient and let Him lead us. It's not easy to live knowing He knows what we need and it is very rarely what we want. If you are sad, turn to God. If you are lonely ask Jesus to be your companion. If you are in desperate darkness go to the light and Jesus is waiting for you. If your past year was wonderful, great, then don't forget to thank our Lord and Savior for all He has given you. Show Him your gratitude by being a better person. We can all make improvements. Be the best we can be! Be better tomorrow than we were today! With God all things are possible! With God it is easier to endure anything! With God by our side our New Year can be a great. All our wishes may not come true but with God by our side we can be forgiven and our lives can be brighter in this New Year. Start by asking God what l can do to be a better follower of your son Jesus Christ! This New Year can be the difference for all our tomorrows. The year won't be perfect but it will be better with Christ by our side. May the Love, forgiveness, and peace come into your lives this New Year! The difference will be the best experience you will ever know!

Here is a little story for you to enjoy!!!!

The Wise Man

People have been coming to the wise man, complaining about the same problems every time. One day he told them a joke and everyone roared in laughter.

After a couple of minutes, he told them the same joke and only a few of them smiled.

When he told the same joke for the third time no one laughed anymore.

The wise man smiled and said:

“You can’t laugh at the same joke over and over. So why are you always crying about the same problem?”

Moral of the story:

Worrying won’t solve your problems, it’ll just waste your time and energy.

(Dan Western)

Happy New Year,

Rev. Walter Coy