After new recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) encouraging both vaccinated, as well as unvaccinated persons, to resume wearing masks indoors in public places, St. Philip Church Council voted to reinstate the expectation of wearing masks indoors at St. Philip, beginning this Sunday, August 15. This decision was made in consultation with our regional health officials, advice from doctors, and in caring discernment of how God is calling us to love and serve the community.
We continue to pray for the health, safety, and care for the community; our congregational community, our neighborhood community, and our global community. As always, connect and worship in the way that is best for you! We are called together to Live Like That (Christ): loving, feeding, and serving.
“God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8
No matter what phase of life you are in, there will always be someone who has more – more money, more followers on social media, more time. For many people, the pursuit of more leaves them on a never-ending quest for something that is ultimately infinite and unattainable – ‘more’.
While this “grass is greener” mentality is so tempting for us all, comparison is such a thief of joy. Instead of focusing on those pursuits, God invites us to focus on the abundance of gifts that we do possess, instead of what we don’t have. Because, truly, we all possess an abundance of unique gifts. When we recognize the gifts God has given us, we discover that we have much to be thankful for and far more opportunities to make an impact in the world than we often realize.
Find a piece of paper and a pen and make a list of the gifts – skills, relationships, opportunities, resources, etc – that are a part of your life. Put the list somewhere that you will see it again tomorrow. Take a moment to give thanks to God for these gifts and look for one way that you could share one of those gifts with St. Philip to build up the body of Christ. Consider trying to add an additional gift each week throughout our time of focusing on Generosity Matters: It’s a Spiritual Thing.
If there are children or young people in your household, you may want to do this exercise with them, so that they too may recognize and give thanks for all the wonderful gifts in their lives!
Consider adding this prayer to your daily prayers:
God of abundance, thank you. Thank you for all that you generously give. In a world that always seems to need more, help me/us to appreciate enough. Bless me/us to deepen faith with you as I/we seek to mirror the generosity you have first shown. As I/we practice giving, use that generosity to be a way to love neighbors fully. AMEN.
