Student Ministry January 2018
Dear Church Family,
By the time you read this, Christmas will have been long behind us; at least a week or so anyway. I hope that you and your family had a great time together celebrating the coming of our Savior to the earth. I pray that there was little-to-no family drama, and that all the presents were exactly what they wanted. I hope that you were pleased with your presents too, of course. But I wonder, did you struggle at all to think of gifts that you actually wanted? I mean gifts within reason. I always ask Kayla for a brand-new Corvette every birthday and Christmas. That’s an easy one… and one I’ll probably never get, haha! But was it hard to think of things that you wanted for Christmas that you knew they could actually get you?
Some of you have no idea what I’m talking about, and that’s totally ok! But others know what it’s like to try to think of something you want, or even need (other than socks), to ask from others. Most of us living in the U.S. already have everything we could ever need. We also have many things that we simply want but don’t really need. If you’re like me, that can make it difficult to think of things to ask for from others. Did you find yourself thinking, “well no, I’ve already got one of those. Don’t need that either. Hmm, what do I want for Christmas?” I doubt that I’m the only one who had this experience.
Here’s my point; I find it interesting that we are not more aware of our extreme abundance at Christmas time. There are many people who feel their need the most at this time of year, but most of us have all we could ever truly need or want and more. Why aren’t we more content? Think about the new year that is upon us. People are far from content at the beginning of the new year. Instead we want change. We want things to be better. We want to be slimmer and manage our finances better and acquire more belongings that we think will make us happy. Did we not learn our lesson? Have we already forgotten to be thankful? Have we forgotten that God has given us Himself in Christ so that we can have ultimate fulfillment through abiding in Him?
New Year’s resolutions can be quite helpful. But what kind of resolutions are we really making? Are we making a resolution that finds our happiness in Christ, the One who’s birth we just celebrated? Or are we looking to the world for resolutions that it deems worthwhile? We cannot expect life to be very fruitful if we are making resolutions that are not first and foremost centered on Christ. Want to lose some weight? That’s great! But are we losing it for ourselves, or so we can be good stewards of the body God has given us? Want to have better time management? Superb! But why? So we can use time to be less stressed and more comfortable, or so we can use our time for God’s Kingdom and growing in Him and making Him known? Resolutions aren’t bad, but our motives matter immensely. What are your resolutions for this year, and how are they centered on Christ? I’ll tell you that our students need to see us adults be resolved to spend time in the Word and share the gospel. They need examples of godly resolutions. Will you help me be resolved to show that knowing Christ and being known by Him is better than all other resolutions?
Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren