Dear Congregation,
I’m excited to announce that the 9 a.m. service on November 9,will be leading a bluegrass style worship! If you are interested in being a part of this worship team, please let Liz or Cristine know.
Women’s Ensemble has begun to lead worship at 11 a.m. services; new singers are encouraged to join! If there are any men who would like to sing, please be sure to come talk to me as well, since a choir may be in the works.
Some of you may know that as a staff, we pray together weekly and take turns leading devotions. This week, Sonja led a devotion on how important it is to continue to marvel at God’s creation and all the blessings in our life. It is easy to begin to take things for granted, or, as we get tired and distracted by other tasks, to stop noticing the beauty present in our daily lives. This devotion reminds me of a favorite praise song:
“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord…open the eyes of my heart…I want to see You.”
These familiar lyrics speak so much deeper than the surface of what we see. In a novel I’m reading that takes place in Africa, a journalist questions how a war criminal is morally able to kill innocent people. A Priest in the novel tells her that the criminal can kill people because he is not seeing them as people. He is not seeing them at all. No doubt we have the same questions as that journalist today, seeing all of the senseless violence around us. Perhaps one of the best things we can do is open our own eyes, and help to open others eyes, to the love of Christ. Because if you see someone as God’s beloved child, it is impossible to hurt them.
Lord, open our eyes to others around us in need, and help us to see them as Your beloved children.
Lord, open our eyes to the beauty that surrounds us this autumn.
Lord, open our eyes to the blessings, big and small, that you bring to our everyday lives.
-Liz Hollers,
Director of Worship and Music