If you were at the Spaghetti Dinner just after Thanksgiving, you may remember that your Senior High kids donated the proceeds of that dinner - before they had received any money - to the Detroit Rescue Mission to fund a lot of Thanksgiving Dinners for folks who had a whole lot less for which to be thankful than we generally do. That made a big impact on me, and I hope it did on our youth and our whole congregation.
It's interesting to watch patterns appear out of seemingly unrelated actions, and I had that experience again in collecting this year's devotions. It seems that the idea of conversing with God – of spending time with Him and His Word and really getting to know Him, finding out what it is He would have us do – that’s what was on the collective mind of our congregation again this year, joined by an overall sense of blessedness or fortune or luck, and the determination to share those blessings with others. It's hard to argue with either of those as excellent themes for our Lenten, nay - our Life-Long, disciplines.
It still seems just as appropriate as it has been these last several years to repeat the introduction from our congregation's first book of devotions of some thirty years ago.
Keeping a true Lent requires us to be vigilant in many ways: in prayer, study, worship, sacrifice, giving, meditation, and fellowship.
One or all may take precedence, depending upon our daily commitments. From these devotions, lovingly prepared, may you find a well spring of faith to renew and sustain you, so that the Glorious Triumph that is Easter will remain with you always.
The Lenten Committee
Again, the Worship and Music Committee can but say, “Amen.”
Charlie van Becelaere, co-chair
