Christmas in July

This past Sunday I sort of cheated in my faith journey of worshiping in different places, as I had heard the Pastor of this church preach before, but I had not attended worship in his church before this past week. As I have stated before, the denomination, the name of the place of worship, or any other names associated with my worship experience are not important.  What I am focusing on during this phase of my walk is the take away and what I am learning about myself and my faith, as I reconstruct my beliefs. The denomination of this place of worship, however was very similar to my own home church.

I did not know the service this particular Sunday was going to have a Christmas in July theme, however I was very excited when I realized that I was going to get a chance to sing Christmas Carols! I was very much in my element as I love EVERYTHING about Christmas! I love the feeling of peace and goodwill, the birth narrative, the giving, the decorations, the baking, and the music! It was very cool that I picked this place to worship on this particular Sunday!

Before the service started, a women asked me if she could sit with me. We started talking and I explained to her what I was doing. She expressed that she thought it was a wonderful idea, that she had moved around a lot due to her husband being in the military and had enjoyed worshiping in different places, and explained that she felt she had been on this journey for 70 years and was still learning. First, I couldn't believe that she was 70. I would have put her somewhere in her fifties, but I am a terrible judge of age. I told her that I believe that we continue to learn all our lives. We continued to talk until the service started and after it was over, she invited me to stay for coffee and we talked for about 45 more minutes. I would probably never had met or struck up a conversation with her if I had not visited her church. I didn't expect to make such connections when I decided to expand my horizons in this manner! I am excited to see who elese I connect with on this walk!

The first hymn was "O come, All Ye Faithful (one of my favorites!). After the Call to Worship and the Opening Prayer, the pastor led us in a Christmas Carol Hymn sing. The way this worked was anyone who wished called out a hymn and we sang two verses of that song. If you are familiar with most Hymnals, you know that the majority of Christmas hymns are in the same section of the hymnal. When the pastor announced that this was going to be the last hymn, a gentleman called out a hymn number that was not close to the other numbers, however it was the hymn "Let There be Peace on Earth" and it was just perfect for that moment! Of course, this is another of my favorite hymns! I would wager to say that I have MANY favorite hymns and Christmas Carols! This hymn always invokes a rush of emotion in me as I sing it. I had already found my first take away before the message!

The message was from the Old Testament, the book of Ezra chapter 1:1-7. In this scripture passage the focus is on rebuilding. Those who had been exiled by King Nebuchadnezzar were permitted to return and rebuild as per King Cyrus. I took several things away from this message:

1. We all have baggage. It is hard to rebuild with all that baggage we lug around.
2. Terrible things happen, but God is still here! Amen!
3. Things will never be "like they used to be" and if we get stuck in that though, we are missing out on a lot of wonderful things that God has in store for us.
4. Sometimes the foundation is where we need to start and celebrate the journey as the foundation grows. 
5. If we take the time to look, there is always hope and opportunity during tough times.
6. When things get tough,  that is when we really need God, and many of us (myself included) will often "forget" to connect with him in prayer. God works in his own time and in his own way, we just need to be open to it.

This was a very positive and inspiring worship experience for me!  I will end with a few questions for discussion:
1. Where do you find your hope and strength when things get tough?
2. Do you look for the hope and opportunity or do you get stuck in lamenting the way it used to be?
3. Do you celebrate the little thing along the way?