Hi Church!

Happy Fall!  It's definitely not summer anymore and I am excited to see the leaves starting to change.  This is absolutely my favorite season of the year!

Last week I talked about ordering a devotion book that will go with the sermon series for Advent.  If you would like one of these please let me know this week so I can get them ordered.  And be thinking about the Blue Christmas service and if you would like to participate in it. 

Sunday we started a new series on the Holy Spirit.  We may know He is part of the Trinity, but do we give Him as much attention as He deserves?  Now that we know who the Spirit is, this coming week we will talk about His role in our lives. 

Devotion This Week:

As we begin November and December, the one thing on everyone’s mind is the holidays.  We start with Thanksgiving and then we have Christmas.  For the life of a Christian, the Christmas season is one filled with joy over the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. 

From a society perspective though, both of these holidays are primarily about family.  You will see Hallmark movies and commercials and social media showing love and togetherness and happiness.  But for some that isn’t the case.  Actually, for many of us that isn’t the case. We have family arguments, dysfunction, challenges, and then there is the empty chair. 

I have experienced many empty chairs over the years - each one made the holidays less joyous.  In 2006, my dad had unexpectedly passed away.  He was a strong patriarch and we had many traditions he led.  That year that empty chair was the most painful to look at as we tried to process our grief. Even though we have moved past the heavy grief, it is still painful even today to look at that empty chair where he once was. 

In 2007, the empty chair was my ex-husband as we had been divorced earlier in the year. That year, on the outside, I was glad to see that empty chair as I welcomed the divorce, but on the inside I was grieving the loss of unmet expectations and the dreams of growing old with someone instead of being alone.

And in 2019 the empty chair was my oldest daughter.  She was in a rehab facility as the choices she made caught up with her.  Turns out there was mental illness that had been undiagnosed, but for that year, we did not know it.  All I knew was this was the first year she was not with us during the holidays. 

Holidays are usually filled with happiness, hugging family members you don’t see often enough, laughing at memories, beautiful table settings, awesome home cooked food.  But for some there is pain.  Pain of an empty chair.  Maybe this is the year that you are experiencing a loss that no words can explain.  Maybe this is the year that loneliness is the most prominent emotion.  Maybe this is a year where things are just different. 

We may hide our feelings from others, but do not hide them from God.  Do not try to handle things without leaning into our Lord.  He wants you to share your struggles, your worries, your pain, and He will carry you through it all.  God, and only God, can truly offer peace and rest from an anxious heart.  Through Him we have hope.  It doesn’t matter what our past looks like, whether our life is perfect or in shambles, and it doesn’t matter whose chair is empty.  Our chair is full because we are seated at the foot of the cross – and there is always room at His table.  

Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  Psalms 34:18

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13