OK, THIS is a ‘Difficult’ one to ‘share’… It is a VERY personal… yet very POWERFUL… message!! It was written in 2008 and given on December 28 of that year at the little church in Hartford that I had grown-up in… and… as I prophesied here… is now gone! 😦

As part of my ‘returning’ to this area, I was attending classes at ‘Lewis & Clark Community College’ (I graduated in the spring of 2009, wearing a Gold Rope across the stage! ), all while driving a truck 10-12 hours every day!!

Also, Many of my friends will remember Henry, from my class at EHS, 1971… He makes a cameo appearance… albeit, a sad one…

The verses are from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-14…

Hasn’t the weather this year been really strange? I had worked late on a project Wednesday night, so it was around 7:30 or 8 in the morning when I got up and going on Christmas Day. As I’m sure many of you know, waking up all alone to a silent Christmas morning can be a bit dis-heartening, so the first thing I did was just open up the front door to see if I might be able to sit on the porch for a little bit. That early, it was still a bit cool, but not Too bad, so I went out… and was just awe-struck with how quiet it was! There were No cars, no train or factory or plant sounds in the distance, no radios or boom-boxes blaring at the Laundromat across the street… I walked to the sidewalk, then all the way across Wood River Ave. in just my sweats and my moccasins, and never heard a sound or saw a soul! My first thought was it was the ‘silence of the dead’, but I immediately changed that… what I was experiencing was the Peace of a Christmas morning!!

Now, I know that the date that the world chooses to celebrate the birth of Christ has absolutely no Biblical base, just as I know that the celebration of His birth has absolutely Nothing to do with our salvation… But still, isn’t it great to have at least One day/year when the majority of the world stops and recognizes the mystery and ponders the meaning of the Christ child? And for just a few minutes that morning, I was able to literally ‘feel’ that mystery and ‘magic’ in the very air around me as I personally experienced at least the total peace in that part of Wood River, Il at that moment of time!

I said that the weather this year has been really strange, but that hasn’t been the only thing, at least for me. Indeed, I would have to say that much of the last Three years has been rather strange for me. You see, it was just over three years ago when I made the decision to leave behind every aspect of the life I had spent some 30-odd years building and start all over again… and so it was that I found myself living back in the town where I had grown-up as a child, attending the church that had been so central to that childhood, and going to school! Talk about déjà-vu all over again! Much of it has been almost like learning to walk all over again… except that this time, I’ve had to teach myself, with nobody there to catch me each time I’ve fallen… and if anything has gotten easier from all of this, it’s been learning how to fall!

Anyway, as I was saying, there have just been a number of strange things to deal with sometimes… one recent example might be how the instructor of one class this last semester docked me for not being creative enough, while the other instructor really got on me about being Too creative… so much so that other students in the class started to take issue with him and defend me! So what you learn from that is that if you want to be creative, you have to be true to Yourself, and not worry so much about what others might think… and to anyone that knows me, That has Never been a problem for Me!

I have made some new friends this last year or so, but I seem to have lost even more… some just seem to go by the wayside, while others… well, I’ll just say that it was very strange to get a call from people I knew in Jacksonville one day telling me that my best and oldest friend had been found dead in his bed that morning… he had had a heart attack, and, living alone like me, there was no one there to help him or call for help… THAT really makes a body stop and think.

We’ve also lost some very special people here in the last 3-4 years… so many, in fact, that some are given cause to wonder about the future of our little group here… as well they should! I mean, consider with me for a moment… for the most part, I’M one of the youngsters here each Sunday!

But you know what? One of the hardest but most important lessons I have come to terms with… or should I say, Tried to come to terms with… is that no matter what happens, God is in control… even when we mess up and just get things completely wrong, He can Still take that and help us to learn, and make the most of it!

Some of you may remember the song that put many of the words of these verses I chose this morning to music… indeed, I remember very distinctly sitting here one Sunday morning in the mid ‘60’s and discovering them in the Concordance of my Bible and realizing for the first time that they were Biblical! Let me read them again…

Eccl 3:1-14
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil — this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

When I first started attending classes again, I felt that I could probably proficiency out of many of them, just taking the tests for the credit, but not actually take the class, but decided that spending the time in a classroom environment would probably be a good experience for me… and while I feel like I was right on Both counts, I have to say that there has not been One class that I did not learn something in… and Most of them, I learned a Lot! And I’m not talking about just facts and figures here… I’m talking about learning things about myself that I didn’t know… learning and discovering skills and talents that I never suspected… and, on occasion, recognizing that there are some that I just do NOT have! God has been teaching me!

When I first started attending here again, it was with the hope that I might be able to study and relearn many of those lessons taught me as a child but seem to have grown foggy over the years… but many of the teachers I grew up with are either no longer with us, or are just unable to perform that function any longer! But again, you know what? God has seen to it that I Still have been learning the lessons I’ve needed to learn… even if much of the learning has been on my own!

Next Sunday is the first of a new year… and I predict that sometime within the next 24 months… and possibly much less… the subject of the future of this little group of faithful followers will begin to take on more and more importance… first, our attendance will continue to shrink as more of us are no longer able to be here… but even more than that, I fear that we may soon be unable to fill the leadership and teaching roles for each service… indeed, there may well come a Sunday in the not too distant future that we might not even be able to fill this lectern on a regular basis! Why is that? Because our ‘fire’ is all but gone out… there is barely a spark left! Maybe enough to get each of us here the rest of the distance we need to go with our own lives, but Certainly not enough for anyone outside to see!

And I Know of which I speak, for My fire has been ebbing for some time now! I have had 2 close friends, this last year, take me to task for reusing some of my old talks instead of studying and writing a new one each time… and though I may argue that they are Good talks with a good message, and that I just don’t always have the time to put towards assembling a proper study… in the end, I have to admit that they are right… because the Biggest reason I have sometimes chose to recycle material is that My fire for doing God’s work was down to a dull glow! And I think it’s time we ALL start to do something about it!!

Verses 12 and 13 say that, “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil — this is the gift of God.”

It is time that we start being Active Christians again!! Let’s get someone local here to contact the city and other organizations and offer the use of this building for things like Scout packs and afterschool study programs! Let’s start putting together some neighborhood potlucks and/or meals During The Week, and then get out and make sure the neighborhood Knows about it!! I, for one, would love to set-up and do the weekly Bible study I wrote using old TV westerns as the base… and open and advertise it to the general public! Let’s see if we can get some singing groups organized to make local appearances around the area and Show people what voices can do without a piano or organ! Let’s get started, right now, planning some kind of Vacation Bible School for this next summer! Let’s DO Something!!

Most congregations and denominations that celebrate Christmas use it as one of their ‘strengthening’ times of the year… they know that if nothing else, many of their members will attend at least at Christmas and at Easter… but the ones who are “successful”… the ones who have masses of people attending and taking part throughout the year… are the ones who are true to the ideal that following Christ is not a part-time thing… it is not something that you can concentrate on once-or-twice a year and think that’s enough! The only Christian that Jesus will recognize is the Christian who follows the Lord’s leading 24/7… until their dying day!

These verses from Ecclesiastes tell us that there is a time to everything under heaven… and I say to you that unless we make this a time to plant… a time to heal… a time to speak, and embrace, and Love… then it will most assuredly become a time for us… as a congregation… to die!