A New Year

Doesn't it feel more like Spring than Winter to you? It sure seems like we have skipped right over the colder and snowier (traditionally) parts of the year and headed on to the next stage of natural life and rhythm.

Such is also often the case for those who maybe celebrated the birth of Jesus a few weeks ago, maybe reconnected with a community of faith, only to return and find out he's all grown up and headed on his mission to announce God's kingdom is here. Things sure seem to move fast sometimes.

There will be no surprises though for how we often spend the first few weeks of any new year. Many people make "decisions" about their health, relationships, finances, or other things during this first month of the year. Most of us who do will totally abandon those decisions within a few weeks. In fact, the Christmas candy discounts were still going on December 29th when the Valentine's Day candy was already on sale! It was almost like we commercially replaced on kind of love with another.

Maybe we are all just in need of a little spiritual check-in with one another. While many of us find ways to "make it" through the Christmas season, it often comes back to haunt us in January when the first credit card bill arrives to remind us of our over-exhuberant spending. It is one of the first signs of disillusionment meant to suck the joy and energy out of our spirits and forget why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

So, while nature takes a little cleansing warm-up and rain to wash the iced-up piles of snow away, why not take a moment to reflect on the many ways you are blessed. Maybe take time to reflect a bit on how you are connected to people, or desire to be connected to others so that you may discover a bit of the divine spark that binds us together as people.

Stop by for a spiritual check-in and together we can discover where God is calling us here in this place and in this new year.