Retelling the Story

 one more week until

Its been quite a couple of years, hasn't it? 

I don't even know where to begin. Actually the last 3 years since the Special General Conference has been a treat. (Please read as much sarcasm as you can muster into that sentence.) The amount of division and problems that persist in the church and in society feel like they are at an all time high.

But, if we are honest, this world didn't just get messed up in the last couple of years. It's been a jumbled mess of incoherent garbage long before you and I came along. It was a mess when our Savior stepped into our human existence some two thousand years ago. John records the facts in his Gospel stating that, "He came to those who were his own and his own received him not." Have you seen the glory of the Lord in the turmoil and pain of the last couple, three years? It is easy to lose sight of what is important when the trouble around us gets to a boiling point. 

John and the rest of the disciples could not have had it easy. They walked everywhere they went. They worked their fingers to the bone trying to make it in a riches or poverty world. In the midst of it all, John records what was important. They saw Him. The saw the glory of the Son of God. Later in his Epistles he would use wording to suggest that they saw it with their own eyes. They laid hands on it. They witnessed the Glory of God in a personal manner and it forever changed their lives. There is nothing quite like some much grounded grace and truth to bring our focus back to a good center. Next year we will spend much of the time focusing on what we believe as United Methodists. Grace and Truth will be subject matter as we go forward. It all starts with what we end with here. The Glory of the Son of God. Who is He? What do you believe about Him? Why is that so important to us? We will take the time understand all of this as we turn the corner into 2022. Won't you come with me? It will mean some extra study. It will cause us to think and reflect. It will move us into a new area in our journey with Jesus. It is a journey, let me emphasize that. We are not here to just sit and wait. We are going somewhere with all this. 

The best thing we can do with our lives and our faith is turn the corner and keeps moving ahead.