“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” –Matthew 11:28-30

My life was always busy growing up. Nights that my family wasn’t running off to one place or another were few and far between. I like to be busy. I like to feel important. I like to work hard. This past year has really challenged me to reflect on why I like the busyness.

To be candid, 2024 was a hard year for me. It was beautiful and amazing—I got married and moved to a new city. But it was also the year I quit my dream job, moved away from my family, moved away from my friends, left a church that I had finally started feeling at home in, and started a brand new life in a place where I knew no one.

Not only was my entire life up in the air, but I was also beginning to feel burned out from a life of constant go-go-go. I was working 10-hour days more often than I should have been, planning a wedding, maintaining friendships, and raising a puppy. I was living my life at what seemed like 90 miles an hour. The pace felt fine enough—I was doing okay. I was getting things done and achieving what I thought I wanted, but I was growing farther from relationship with God. How?? I was working in ministry! I thought I had found the fast-track to holy perfection! Okay... I wasn’t quite that naive, but you get the idea.

I had been romanticizing the idea of a “busy” life. If you asked me how my day was or how things were going before 2024, odds are that I would have answered, “Oh, you know, busy!” Saying things were busy gave me an opportunity to avoid real conversations about how things really were without bending the truth because it was true: My life was busy!

But in all of the busyness, I realized time in prayer and time spent in the Word and time dwelling with God had fallen pretty low on my list of priorities. I realized that busy was not how I wanted people to see Christ through me. I wanted them to see loving, kind, peaceful, and joyful.

In one of his books, Pastor John Ortberg said, “For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.”

One of my favorite books that I read in 2024 was The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. In this book, one of the practical tips he gives is to physically slow yourself down in order to practice rest and presence. Some of his suggestions are to drive at the speed limit, get into the slow lane in traffic, pick the longest checkout line at the grocery store, show up early to an appointment without using your phone while you wait, stop trying to multitask, etc. Throughout 2024, I tried to do some of these on a regular basis and discovered that, actually, I don’t want to be in such a hurry all the time. And I realized that doing some of these things allowed me to better love my neighbors. If I am not in a rush at the checkout line, I can let a stranger who seems anxious to get to their next stop go ahead of me. If I am not in a hurry when I drive places, I find I have more peace and patience and can even pray for those driving past me at fast speeds. Love takes time, and hurry convinces you that you don’t have time.

Is hurrying preventing you from loving others well?
How will you challenge yourself to slow down and practice presence with God in 2025?

Working on slowing down,
Maddie Pease

As the Lord of Life staff knows, I sometimes struggle with writing the blog. Writing does not come naturally to me and the grammar rules can be fuzzy. However, I have come to find peace in the quiet of the early morning when I tend to start my blogging journey. An early alarm, a cup of coffee, a blanket, my laptop, sometimes various books, and opening the shades so I can watch the sun rise are part of the process. This month, there was the added serenity of the Christmas tree and lights.

Since blogging is a process, I tend to start with an idea and several times abandon it for another. I was blessed this morning with finding a blog I had started a few years ago as it brought memories flooding back. It hit home with the mixed emotions that I have been feeling this Advent season. I’ve been missing my mom who died during this season along with feeling the weight of other losses and the sadness of events going on in the world, so my heart has been heavy. But then there is the profound joy and hope when we celebrate and join together at Advent dinners, at the Instant Christmas program, and as a community of faith during this season of anticipation for the light of Jesus that is to come.

These are the beginnings of my blog three years ago… “I started the third Sunday of Advent just as it was meant to be, a week of joy. It was going to be a great day. I had a morning full of LOL church lovin’ (can you hear Pastor Lowell saying that?), the Christmas program, lunch with dear friends, and senior high night with LOL and VEIL youth. My only worries were how much pizza I should order, and did I get enough Christmas tree treats for the program? Oh, and the sun was shining!

I got the call right after my lunch. My mom and stepdad, Lou, had both fallen and were being taken to West Chester ER. Bam! How quickly the day turned. They thought the injuries weren’t too serious, but this was a new complication since my stepdad was in the process of learning to care for mom after her major back surgery. Now he looked like the guy who lost the prize fight and needed care too.

How are we going to work through this? Who was going to care for my mom now? So much to figure out. But as God does, moments of joy were placed between the worry and fear. When the Chaplain at the hospital came to visit my mom, she said, “You need to go to Lou”, and when she went to visit Lou, he sent her right back to mom. We all drew comfort from their love and care for each other. Mom and I had those big down times of waiting in the ER where we laughed at memories from childhood and mused at the amazingness of nurses and care staff.”

What a gift to remember my mom today as she always was, the eternal optimist with an ability to share joy with others even in her pain. She was also an amazing writer with her masters in English who could whip out a poem or heartfelt letter in a flash. I guess this talent skips a generation! But don’t feel bad for me as she also instilled in her children the ability to laugh at ourselves and appreciate what other gifts God had given us.

When we know the fullness of joy, we are also opening ourselves to experience sadness, frustration, and loss. Life is truly a balance of emotions.

How comforting to know that God sent Jesus to experience the fullness of humankind, which encompasses the entirety of emotions. When we are willing to open our lives and hearts to live freely among God’s people in this Advent season and beyond, there will be sorrow but there will also be great joy.

What emotions are you feeling today? Can you see the joys that, many times, mix in with the sorrows? Can you find hope as we rejoice in the birth of Jesus that brings love and light to a weary world?

Sharing the season of hope, love, joy and peace with you,
Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation

We hear a lot of words and phrases around Advent like “stillness,” “quiet,” “making room in our hearts,” “preparing the way …” The idea of Advent is that we take this time before Christmas to ready ourselves for Jesus' birth. Officially, it is a season of fasting* just like Lent is the season of fasting before we celebrate Easter. 

But that isn’t how our weeks leading up to Christmas usually work for us, is it? We rush to finish projects for our jobs before end-of-year reporting; we cram social engagements into our calendars, often to the point they overlap; we stress about finding and buying gifts, traveling, or hosting for Christmas, and maybe about the finances attached to all of that. It's hard to imagine making any time or quiet or room or preparing for Jesus at all. It feels more like chaos than peace.

You may have figured this out about me - I thrive in chaos. For a long time, that was a source of stress for me - not because the chaos bothered me, but because I was worried about what other people thought about it. Isn’t that a source of a lot of our stress this time of year? What is everyone going to think about my work when the score is settled on December 31? Will everyone like the gifts I’m buying? Who is going to be disappointed in our travel plans? Or the food we cooked? Or our Christmas decorations? Or how clean our house is? We’re worried about how other people are going to judge our chaos, or at least, the way we have dealt with our chaos. 

For me, as someone who knits energy out of that chaotic skein, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was focusing on the wrong thing. Once I realized that the chaos wasn’t the problem and that my fears of failure were, it allowed me the joy I get when I accomplish things. Philosopher Frederich Nietzsche said, “You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” We need that sense of play - of trying things out, whether they are going to work or not - to create something new. And then once we’ve tried something, we look at what works and what doesn’t, and we learn and grow from it.

What if we take that sense of playfulness through Advent with us? We are going to be presented with chaos whether we like it or not, so why not have fun with it? Let go of the fear and if plans don’t work out, learn from what you did and try something different next time. This is another way of being mindful in a season when it is really difficult to make time for quiet.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Pablo Picasso: “God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.”

What kind of chaos are you going to play with this Christmas season?

 John Johns, Music Director

*if anyone is interested, ask me about why Advent isn’t really the fasting season before Christmas but before another feast day … it is worth a whole other blog post.

When Sister Maria is sent to serve as the governess to the seven cloistered children of the von Trapp household, it doesn’t take her long before she begins to open their minds to the joys of music. Teaching them some basic theory and inviting them into the structure of melody, she sings, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

The beginning is indeed a very good place to start and can be an energizing location. The start of something new can bring new experiences and learning. Crossing the threshold into fresh territory can invite exploration and growth, as well as nurture the perfect atmosphere for cultivating something new.

Beginnings can also be a place filled with anxiety and apprehension. Each step is filled with the unknown.
We may be overwhelmed by the uncertainty ahead, concerned about how ill-prepared we may be for the uncertainties, and even paralyzed in some situations by fear of that which we cannot control.

When I think of a beginning, I think of a do-over or a back-to-basics moment. When learning how to drive using a clutch in a 4-speed Chevy Citation, I heard, “Let’s start from the beginning!” more than once, as the vehicle jolted back and forth looking for the sweet spot. Putting the finishing touches on a musical during dress rehearsal, our high school theater director would say, “Let’s take it from the top!” inviting us to start the production from the beginning one more time. Coming up short on a cut, my drywall partner on Appalachia Service Project, said, “Let’s measure that again and start over.” Each of these start-at-the-beginning moments were a refresher course. A reminder of how something was done or could be done.

The Advent season is one such refresher. We put up lights to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world. We methodically light our Advent wreath week by week, naming hope, peace, joy, and love as centerpieces of our lives of faith. Moving furniture and decorations around in our home to make room for Christmas decor, we mimic the way that the Spirit of God continually creates space in our hearts and minds for Jesus. We take these four weeks of Advent as an intentional time to hear ancient narratives which center us once again in our origin story.

What are some of the words you need to hear to take you back to the beginning? Where are you longing for a fresh start? How is God using this season to reorient your heart and mind?

Our theme for this Advent is “Words for the Beginning.” Grounding ourselves in ancient stories of God accompanying God’s people, we embrace themes including: “You are a blessing,” “We can’t go alone,” “Do the good that is yours to do,” and “Hope is worth the risk.” Each of these tether us to our Source and speak a deep truth of how God’s enduring and unconditional love embraces us and fuels us for all that is ahead.

Whatever today and this Advent season holds, you are not alone. God is here and various people and communities surround you in love. We long and look for the coming of Jesus and pray with the Korean songwriter Geon-yong Lee as we sing:

Come now, O Prince of peace, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people.

Come now and set us free, O God, our Savior.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile all nations.

Starting over every day,
Pastor Lowell

This summer at camp, I was leading an adult bible study at family camp. Family camp is a weekend program where families can come to camp for the weekend and spend time together. On Saturday morning, both the adults and kids have the choice to go to Bible study. Our theme verse at camp was Psalm 139:14, which says, “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works that my soul knows very well.”

I spent the whole summer thinking deeply about Psalm 139:14 and thought I already knew so much about it. However, the parents shared that they wrestled with verse 14 because the world had ideas of what “normal” was and their children did not fit into that. It was difficult to get their mind around what being fearfully and wonderfully made truly means.

Perhaps you can relate to also struggling with what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made. Especially in a world that narrows the definition of who people really are. However, the word of God reminds us of how God created all people in his image.

Another way to understand being fearfully and wonderfully fashioned is to understand it as being set apart and marvelously crafted. Because God has molded us, we can not help but praise God. The message translation says, “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!” Ecclesiastes 11:5 says, “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”

God doesn’t put us in boxes or have a definition of what “normal” is. We all are uniquely crafted with our own unique personalities and gifts. Each one was created in the image of God, and in the waters of baptism, we are claimed as God’s beloved children–even those on the fringes of society and those we struggle to see in the image of God. I am thankful that God molded all people so uniquely and different. Life would be boring if we all looked and sounded the same.

In this season of gratefulness, I invite you to take some time to thank God for making everyone in the image of God, including yourself. Take comfort in knowing that God is bigger than the ways the world tries to categorize you.

Wonderfully crafted,
Pastor Nicole

My daughter is coming home from Denver for a visit in a few weeks. I asked if she was planning to see friends or do anything special while here. Her response, “I just want to snuggle with Myah” while I’m home. Myah is our 13-year-old lab-pointer mix or at least that is what the rescue organization guessed about her heritage.

Most of us can relate to the comfort and unconditional love that a dog so freely gives (no disrespect to cats!). It’s the kind of love that when you leave them inside for 2 minutes to walk to the mailbox and on your return are greeted with a wagging tail, melty eyes, and wiggly body as if you were gone for weeks.

A relationship with a dog can sensitize us to a deeper connection with all of creation. We are part of this wonderful world that is ultimately interconnected. It’s a comforting reminder especially in this time of division and strife.

Unlike humans, many who may love conditionally, dogs offer an unbiased and unconditional love. They don’t care how we look, how successful we are, or the mistakes we’ve made. They’re incredibly forgiving. They think we are better than we are. Their endless affection reminds us of the kind of unreserved love God has for us.

God tells us we can learn from all the animals. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being,” Job 12:7-10.

In the story of Job, his faith is tested through the unimaginable loss of his wealth, his children and terrible physical afflictions. Job had every reason not to trust in these words, yet he remained steadfast in his commitment to God. God teaches us that the world, and what happens in it, and what happens to it, is in our hands, too. This is the purpose for which God has created us, to love the Lord our God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Unfortunately, the world does not always give back with unwavering gratitude like our furry friends. Yet, we persevere knowing that God will be holding us always. Creation needs us to care for each other, our community, and the world regardless of the ultimate outcome.

Whether you are with your beloved pet or have memories of a special pet, hold fast to the snuggles, bask in their unconditional love, find joy in their care or even in struggling with their care, and ask yourself, what is God teaching you in those moments? Can your care and their need for you to be their caregiver be the catalyst for how you go into the world?

Living and sharing in God’s love with you,
Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation