Posting a Year-End Status Update

I often begin my mornings by “visiting” family members and friends who have written a “status update” or a newsy “note” on “facebook,” the popular computer application that allows us a window into the lives of some of the people we love and care about. This morning, my sister Lindsley, who is an executive leadership coach, posted a great question for December 28:

“28, 29, 30, 31...How will you use these last four days of 2010? Why not take time to reflect? What do you want to bring into 2011? What do you want to release and let go of? Take time out for yourself today and discover. Then share.”

My response reveals my priorities as well as my burdens – of what I struggle to let go. These last days are a time to tie up the loose ends that might “trip me up” as I try to go forward: the required reports and weekly writings that become a burden if left undone too long. These days are also a time to "unpack the boxes" of my new life: not only to take out my possessions from the cardboard boxes that protected them on their journey from Iowa to Missouri, but also to unpack my talents and my spiritual gifts, many of which have gone largely unused and unexpressed during the stressful months of seeking this new call and preparing for the move. Now I am here in a new place, and after tying up the ends and unpacking the real gifts, I am going to simply revel in the new creation I am becoming with God's help.

What are you doing in these “last days?” What do you need to release? What do you want to protect and cherish? What gifts and talents do you hope to share in 2011?

I would be interested to know any responses you wish to share with me. You may send postal mail to P O Box 301, Trenton, MO 64683. Email may go to PaulSFraser@hotmail.com. Facebook users can find me at: www.facebook.com/PaulSFraser. Or just post a comment below!

Or, you can find me every Sunday morning at First Christian Church in Trenton, Missouri, where I look forward to greeting you: at the church door, or in other places where we may share ministry together!

Grace and Peace! Paul

Speechless in Bethlehem

“15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.” —Luke 2:15-16 (NRSV)

This weekend, when Christmas comes to us, we, like the shepherds long ago, come to our journey’s end … and discover it’s just the beginning! However we come to the nativity, the birth of God – and God’s promised wholeness – into the midst of a fragmented world is a show stopper. There are no words for it, at least, not at first. “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given,” the poet wrote. “So God imparts to human hearts the joys of highest heaven.”

"10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

—Matthew 2:10-11 (NRSV)

The magi – astrologers and sages – who followed a star for a long journey across borders and through time, also found themselves without words. We do not know if they spoke any quiet words to Mary and Joseph, or to the baby, but we do know that God spoke to the depths of their beings, imploring them to return to “their own country by another way.” (Matthew 2:12b)

So when we get where we’re going, after the last package is wrapped, the final card is mailed, the final cookie baked, the Christmas dinner prepared, will there be time for silence? Will we be able to silence the voices of the noisy, fragmented world around us long enough to become aware of the magic and the mystery of God coming to us, and dwelling among us, as one who is vulnerable unless we act? Will we pause and let our selves be filled with awe and wonder?

If you are in Trenton on Friday evening, please plan to come to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at First Christian Church at 6 PM: for a time of singing the favorite carols of Christmas when we will commune with Christ and light a candle in His honor. Wherever you are this Christmas, take time to pause, be silent and remember … that God has come for us and lived among us, in order to promise us…the wonders of eternal love.

I look forward to greeting you at the church door...or wherever we share ministry together!

Merry Christmas! Pastor Paul