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Kimberly P Chastain, Pastor
How are you feeling today? This week? This season?
I know that many people feel like we entered a strange new world as 2025 began. We want to protect and understand, to shelter and nourish. We feel woefully unprepared for the way things are unfolding, and wish we could prepare for a future that we cannot envision and don’t want to understand. Every morning the news is filled with heartbreaking announcements, and we wonder how we can bring our faith and our hope into a world where there is so much need and anger.
As we enter into Lent this year, we will read about how Jesus prepared his followers for difficult times, and look for ways to nurture and support each other in the days ahead. In times of shadow and fear, our calling is to resist despair and to offer light to those around us. Pastor Becky has written about the spiritual discipline of rest, and I have been working on ways that we can practice joy in our life together, by trying new things and sharing our energy with each other.
So this newsletter is packed with invitations to join the community in simple ways or larger ways, so that the way forward is one we take together. We’re offering a Thursday evening Lenten series called “Art for the Heart”, where we’ll explore different ways to create beauty together. There’s a scripture challenge, learning scriptures that will come to mind when you need them. Special giving opportunities and worship experiences will direct our attention to the Love that will not let us go. We’ve got the Tri-Cities Opera coming on March 8 to share an evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein, we’ve got training events to teach us ways to offer safety and peace of mind to people who are at risk, and we’ll be learning and teaching practices in prayer and in gratitude.
Many of you know that I have a “soundtrack” that plays in my mind when I’m pondering how we are to respond to a world in need; in recent weeks I’ve been hearing the music of an old favorite:
When peace like a river attends all my ways,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, you have taught me to say,
“it is well, it is well with my soul.”
This is our challenge and our hope — that we will care for each other in these difficult times as we care for each other in simpler times, so we will all be able so sing together, not because the world is perfect or our lives free from struggle, but because it is well with our souls.
Grace & peace,
Pastor Kimberly
Greetings friends,
I don’t know about you, but the time since Christmas has felt like a roller coaster! There have been highs and lows and it has gone by really, really fast. This past weekend over the President’s Day break, I finally got a chance to slow down and take a break. I didn’t listen to the news for 3 days, I visited with my family, I cleaned, and I did the Backyard Bird Count. And today I am feeling so much better. It’s funny how we think squeezing more and more into our lives makes us more productive when actually taking time to connect with others, tune out the world, and doing things you enjoy do that so much better.
Becky Kindig, Associate Pastor
I realized this weekend when my birding app told me that this weekend was the Backyard Bird Count that I hadn’t spent any time watching birds for 2 months. And that is really sad, because watching birds and being in nature is something that really connects me to God. It’s human nature to forget to take care of ourselves, and I think that is one of many reasons that God calls us to be in community with one another to remind each other to slow down on a regular basis and rest, recharge, and reconnect with God.
We see Jesus do this many times. Things start to get busy when crowds start to form around Jesus, and we hear he slips off to go and pray. And we all know the commandment from God about keeping a Sabbath day to do no work so you could worship, study, and rest. God tells us it is really important, and when we do find a way to work it into our schedules we do feel so much better. But it doesn’t come naturally. We have to be intentional.
How do you rest, recharge, and reconnect with God? Do you have an answer for all three? Because all three are important and one thing rarely meets all three needs.
Ask yourself what you can do to really rest. What physical and mental demands can you put down or share with someone else for a few hours to let yourself do this. Make the boundary, put it on your calendar, and claim the time to rest. And being in community, you can ask someone else if there is a way that you can lighten someone else’s load when you are rested. Or maybe help each other by making time to rest together.
How about recharging? What makes you light up or brings you joy? When was the last time you did that? Is it spending time with friends? Cooking? Playing games with family? Doing sports? Creating something? The list is endless. Try to find some time to build that into your schedule at least once a month if you haven’t for a while, but ideally once a week. I know some people have a hard time making room for joy when the world seems to be in so much pain. But joy is contagious so you might inject a little of what the world needs right now. Joy can also be a form of resistance when others want you to be despairing. And feeling joy does not mean that the other feelings are not there, they just get a break too.
And how about reconnecting with God? What activity slows your mind and opens you to a sense of awe and wonder about God? It could be worship, reading the bible or other devotionals, or time of prayer. It could be engaging in work that helps others. It could be spending time in God’s creation. It could be writing or art or music, or a meditative or gratitude practice. Or it could be something else and can be multiple things. Finding what connects you to God is important, and once you find it, make time to keep doing it. And if you have one but have set it aside for a while, here is your reminder to engage again.
Image credit: Greg Rakozy,
Australian Academy of Science
Australian Academy of Science
I know I struggle sometimes with feeling that it is selfish to take that time, but it really isn’t. You can’t be generous if you are running on empty.
Finding an answer to this is going to be really important in the weeks and months ahead as we deal with the monumental and dizzying change our government is going through at the moment. Keeping up has been overwhelming at times and we feel that we have to know what is going on. But I assure you, friends, that the news will still be there when you plug back in after your rest. And if you are really worried about missing something important, you can let a friend know that you are unplugging for a few days but to let you know if a particular thing happens. That is what being part of a community can do for you. Some people in the community are still engaged with the work while others recharge and come back to let you take a break.
Caring for ourselves, and keeping our connection with God, ensures that we can keep going so we can spread God’s love to those around us.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Becky
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