Faith In Practice
Somehow, we have come to the end of our summer months and worship, and I, like many of you, am in awe of how fast summer 2022 went as well as a bit overwhelmed by the calendar and activities that begin this September, here at church, in our communities, schools, food shelves, etc. As busy as summer is, these first fall months make it seem relaxing in comparison.
With the programmatic year in sight, I find myself thinking a great deal about what our faith practices. We all have them. These are the ways we live out our faith in our daily lives, literally the practices, and the things we do over and over again that keep us grounded and connected to our faith. Some of these are personal, like reading the bible throughout the week, or familial such as saying the Lord’s Prayer at breakfast each day, and some of these are communal such as our Sunday worship, Sunday school, and confirmation.
The last few years have significantly altered our faith practices and I have taken stock of some of those practices, the ones I have kept, those that evolved and those that I have stopped all together. Jesus made it clear that faith wasn’t simply something we believed in our heads, but something we live each and every day of our lives. How we are in the world demonstrates our faith. The practices of mercy, forgiveness, generosity, love, etc. those are how people will know we are Christians, not by the beliefs we profess in our heads.
As we begin another programmatic year here at Minneola, I would invite us all to consider where we are in our practices. They have changed and that’s okay. That is to be expected and I imagine some of those changes have been good, but I also suspect, as it has been for me, some of those changes, caused by these last years have hindered your connection to your faith, your relationship with Jesus, your intimacy with God.
Thankfully, God is always willing to meet us right where we are, so if in prayer and reflection you determine that your practices need to shift personally, as a family, or for this whole community do not be afraid, God is right there with us. Always.
-Pr. Hannah
