VALLEY VINE valley presbyterian church
September 2015
Volume 60, Number 8 We’ll declare our reasons in songs and poems and all manner of digital media. Your praise will spark mine, and your experience of God’s mercy will recall His goodness in my life and the lives of many others.
Dear friends, Gratitude cannot be summoned by command, nor created by force of will, nor brought to life by earnest endeavor. It is an attitude of the soul that has been infused by God’s spirit. It wells up as we pursue and commune with the One who never stops pursuing us. Gratitude is fundamental to every faith-filled life. It frees the mind from trivial and obsessive desires. It loosens the grip, fueling generosity. Gratitude tames all manner of temptations and calms the anxieties that fuel insecurity and restlessness. Grateful people can live through difficulties and grow the hard virtues of patience, courage and forbearance. Thankfulness is an antidote to jealousy and rancor. Gratitude of faith rests on a hope so real that trials become momentary tests in a battle already won.
Let’s cultivate gratitude together. Let’s make room in our church and in our souls for a new experience of the grace of Jesus Christ. American Quaker Poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem (The Brewing of Soma) was adapted into the hymn “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” by Garrett Horder. It says in part: Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways! Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives Thy service find, In deeper reverence, praise… Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace.
Yours in Christ,
Gratitude changes the burden of existence into a delight and allows us to sense the pleasure of God with His children. Gratitude has a physiology – it puts a light in our eyes and a bounce in our step. It turns up the corner of our mouths. It sharpens our senses and coalesces our thoughts and opens our hearts and turns our lives into a deep hallelujah. This fall, we will celebrate, sing, pray, and live our gratitude in every area of our lives together. In every group and gathering, on every single day this fall, we have a chance to express our gratitude and to grow it. The theme is 10,000 Reasons to Praise. Together we will find, within our own lives and souls, the many reasons to say “Alleluia!” We’ll express them in notes and post-its and emails and pictures and installations.
VALLEY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
6947 E. McDonald Drive ▪ Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-5342 Phone: 480-991-6424 ▪ Fax: 480-991-6427 Email: church@myvalleychurch.org ▪ Website: myvalleychurch.org
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