Dear Friends:

 

With the New Year, we have seen the efforts of many to "self-improve."  At the YMCA, for example, the parking lot is crowded, new faces flash on the check-in screen, the steps of the unfamiliar fall on treadmills and, of course, shiny new work-out clothes are being broken in.

 

But it isn't just the gym that attracts those who see the birth of 2017 as the right time to bring changes to their lives.  Some are going back to school, trying to finish that elusive degree.Others are pursuing sobriety or getting medical advice to improve health, life span, and appearance, or finally addressing the conflicts that may have damaged families and marriages for years.

 

None of these changes are a bad thing; fitness, health, sobriety, better communication in marriages--even better physical appearance--can be beneficial to both the one undergoing change and those who witness (and live with) that change.   But there is no change, no self-improvement, and no pursuit that is as beneficial as the seeking of healthy relationships and, especially, healthy relationships with those who live lives of love, caring, and concern for others.  Unfortunately, those who would most benefit from such healthy relationships -- from drawing near to loving, caring, concerned people -- often find it most difficult and daunting to seek them out.  Our culture focuses too strongly on the value of independence, on the value of personal achievement and on the value of material success to allow many of those who bear the weight of societal expectations to admit their need for healthy relationships with people who live unconventional lives--lives lived for others, lives lived for those in need, those who live as Jesus teaches us to live.

 

What does that mean for us?  What does that mean for the church and for the people within it who seek to follow Jesus?  We must be seekers.  We must be the pursuers, the connectors, the builders of relationships with those who may not even know what is missing from their lives.  Not because we are perfect, superior, or even certain that we are living better lives, but because we are called by Jesus to make disciples.  Being disciples and making disciples does not begin and end with receiving and welcoming those who walk through the door of the church.  In fact, being disciples and making disciples does not even begin there anymore.  In this world of distractions, devices and the deception as to what success really means in this life, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to identify what is missing in their lives and then to seek out what would best fulfill those lives.  If we are, faithfully, to live as followers of Jesus, we must become seekers -- seekers of those who need love, care, and concern.

 

We are witnesses to the faithfulness of the Wise Men.  The little that we know of these ancient seekers -- that they came from far away, with little information, led by a bright star in the sky to bear witness to the birth, in a different country, of one born to lead those of a different faith -- all points to men who would go to any length to find what they understood to be exceptionally important for themselves and for others -- even for those they did not and would not ever know.  

 

In the world today, the church -- the people, not the institution -- is needed more than it has ever been needed.  Let us rise to the task.

We Can Hope.
Andy