We've Got People!

Life is tough right now! For many today, this has become a kind of mantra. The world seems out of control, families are breaking, the economy stinks, houses are being lost, corporations are downsizing, pensions are shrinking, waistlines are growing, health is eroding. It's easy to think that we are alone in this, or that life will never get better.

There is another perspective. I experienced it last Sunday morning in a variety of ways, but none more profound than the simple words of an almost four-year-old. During our praise time Jennifer B. shared that her son, Jack, was going to celebrate a birthday this week. Earlier in the week, Jennifer asked Jack who he would like to invite to celebrate with him. Without hesitation, Jack announced, "I want to celebrate with my people."

Jennifer pressed him, 'Who are your people?"

Jack replied, "The church people."

And so on Wednesday night Jennifer is bringing a cake so Jack can celebrate with his people. Knowing that we've got people changes everything, whether we are grieving or celebrating--to have people makes all the difference. In a way Jack answered the age-old question, "Why do you have to go to church to be a Christian? The point of Christianity is that Christ has life in and through a living breathing group of interconnected, loving people. Jack isn't the only one who has people. We can all have people. All we have to do is CONNECT to a healthy community of faith like CUMC, and we can say along with Jack, "I've got people."

Many more around us need to know the strength and support a community of faith can bring. Let's keep working on expanding our circle of care, so that lots more in the TC area can say with confidence, "I've got people."

just a thought for the new year--maybe there is a place like this CUMC

The Land of Beginning

I wish that there were some wonderful place

Called the Land of Beginning Again

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat by the door

And never be put on again.



I wish we could come on it all unaware

Like the hunter who finds a lost trail

And I wish that the one whom our blindness has done

The greatest injustice of all

Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits

For the comrade he's gladdest to hail.



We would find all the things we intended to do

But forgot, and remembered too late;

Little praises unspoken, little promises broken

And all of the thousand and one

Little duties neglected that might have perfected

The day for one less fortunate.



It wouldn't be possible not to be kind

In the Land of Beginning Again

And the ones we misjudged and the ones whom we grudged

Their moments of victory then

Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp

More than penitent lips could explain.



For what had been hardest we'd know had been best

And what had seemed loss would be gain

For there isn't a sting that will not take a wing

When we've faced it and laughed it away,

And I think that the laughter is most what we're after

In the Land of Beginning Again.



So I wish that there were some wondered place

Called the Land of Beginning Again

Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches

And all of our selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door

And never be put on again.



Louise Fletcher