May 12, 2024
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Graduate Recognition Sunday, May 19th.
Final Push to New Orleans! Help the Youth Gathering Youth in their final push to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans! Use the sheet in your bulletin to donate and help feed and house our youth and put gas in the vans. Thank you for your support! See the thermometer in the Narthex for our progress towards our goal. THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY! Current total is $5,403!
Lagers with the Lord May 20th, 6 pm at Buckshots.
Memorial Day Prayer Service, May 27th, 11:45 am at Tiffany Creek Cemetery. Sponsored by the Boyceville Ministerial Association.
The Women of Trinity will be highlighting Baby Care Kits for May and June. They are looking for the following in sizes 6-24 months: sleepers, light jackets, cotton t-shirts, light jackets, sweaters; plus receiving blankets, dark colored hand towels, baby socks, and onesies. You can pick up a list of what is needed on the altar in the Narthex.
Women of Trinity Summer Gathering June 7th at 6 pm. All women are welcome!
Pastor Brad is going on sabbatical June 8th -July 9th . Please note that during this time he will be completely absent from the congregation and its ministry. He will not be returning calls, texts, or emails. You can find more information on his sabbatical in the Good News.
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
I didn’t really want to go. Really didn’t. It was late and I was exhausted. Exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally. It had been a hard time. I had left the house at about 5:30 am or so that day and other than about a ten minute stop back I had been gone till 9:15 pm. Now, it was close to 10, and Amy wanted to go look at the Northern Lights. I really didn’t want to go.
I had every excuse in the book ready. It was cloudy, even though it wasn’t. My car was fully packed with stuff and there was no room, even though we could take her car. The fact was I didn’t really want to go. I wanted to sit in my house and stew in my sadness and finish the drink I had just poured for myself. It didn’t matter in that moment that I had never seen the Northern Lights before. It didn’t matter that Amy hadn’t seen them before either, at least to me in that moment. I just didn’t want to go.
But this is the genius of Amy. She waited a bit because she knew, I think, two things. First, that she wanted to go and could probably get me to go. But more importantly, maybe I needed to go. That it had been a tough day, a hard day, in some ways a horrible day, because you know it has been a bad day when I had golfed and was still in a crappy mood. And so she asked again, about five minutes later. In that time I had checked the weather and seen that it was clear. I had thought about the selfishness of denying Amy something she really wanted to see. I saw that it was dumb and that we could just take her car instead of mine and that we could just drive a few minutes outside of town to get a good look. And that, in reality, when would we ever get a chance to view them again like this? And so, I said yes. Even though I really didn’t want to go, even as I put my shoes and socks on and moved my car and opened the garage and got her car out of it.
But about ten minutes later, as I stood next to her and Baxter as we stared into the heavens looking at something I had never seen before, a sight of wonder and awe and the majesty of God’s creative force, I knew that I had needed to go. In that moment, though my heart was still hurting and my body was still exhausted, I felt some release. I was reminded that even in the most difficult of times, there is still beauty. There is still joy. There is still hope. As I stood next to the woman I loved, with my little family close by, I felt the presence of the Lord reminding me that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.
Maybe Amy knew that is what I would feel in that moment. Maybe not. Maybe she just really wanted to see the lights and knew she could get me to take her. Maybe she just knew that I needed a little pick me up and wanted to get me out of my funk. I have no idea. But I needed to stand there with her and Baxter in that moment and the Lord took that opportunity to ease the burden I was feeling in that moment.
Because that is the thing about the Lord, my friends. Our loving God takes opportunities to remind us that even in the hardest of times, those moments when we feel spent, when the bucket seems empty in every way, to fill us back up. To get us back on our feet. To remind us that we are not alone. To give us comfort, even for an instant. Life can be hard and cruel and awful and tragic and painful. Extraordinarily so. But at the same time, even when all that is going on, it can also be beautiful and magical and amazing and joyful and extraordinary. Both things are true at the same time. And in the midst of it all is our amazing Lord. Always there for us.
I’d love to tell you that as we got back in the car that I was somehow fully my chipper self again. I wasn’t. I was still exhausted and still hurting. But not as much. I was lighter than I had been. However, something new was there as well. It was thankfulness. I was thankful for Amy, for Baxter, for the chance to experience the wonder of God’s creation, and thankful for God’s presence in my life and even for life itself, its ups and downs. Because life is a precious gift that I never want to take for granted. For every moment, even the hard ones, are important. And in all of them, I remember the promise of our Savior: “I am with you always, till the end of the age.”
May God bless you today and always.