From the Study...

Dear Friends,

These days are a season between the greatest Holy Days of the Christian year. Twelve days after Christmas brought us to the Day of Epiphany, which is the day we celebrate the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem and the revealing of Jesus to all the nations of the world. Ash Wednesday follows several weeks later when Lent begins and we begin our spiritual preparations for Holy Week and Easter. Between the Day of Epiphany and Ash Wednesday the season of Epiphany stretches for several weeks. Since I began my ministry, this has come to be something of a season of respite and reflection between two seasons of spiritual peaks and valleys. I think we can all use a season such as this during these months when a virus continues to come and go in various forms while we try to get on with life. The example and invitation for us is in the times and ways Jesus stepped away for a time of rest. He would make the conscious effort to go away to a quiet place to pray, as though he knew trying to take care of his spiritual needs would not happen in the middle of the busy-ness of life. For spiritual respite to work it needs to be approached just as deliberately as we approach any of the other tasks of life. We pay the bills, wash the dishes, cut the grass, and do the laundry regularly. We need to find quiet places just as deliberately and regularly.

Grace and peace,

Mike