Dear Friends of Longview Chapel,
On Sunday our congregation had the gift of baptizing three people! Aria Stephens, Georgia Waldram, and Donna Jacobson each celebrated their faith by taking this step! Each of these women have shared their gifts and talents not only at the Chapel, but in the community and schools where each of them participate. One of the things that made me smile is as we all went downstairs to witness their baptism, people just naturally jumped in and helped with rearranging chairs and making sure that people could see. And there was such beautiful joyful applause as each person came up out of the baptismal waters. And interestingly, when the baptisms were completed, people started helping to put things away, and of course, celebrated with our three baptismal candidates. I look forward to seeing how we all continue to encourage them as they love, grow, and serve!
There are literally millions of ways that we help to rise each other up through the challenges and the joys of life. They may be as simple as a smile. As complex as helping someone develop a plan that has many steps. Giving someone the gift of prayer. Or just listening and walking with them.
In John 5, Jesus tells a man to take up his mat and walk. He doesn’t even actually extend a hand to him to help him. He believes the man can rise up and so the man believes that he can rise up and so he does. He doesn’t even know who Jesus is. But he tries and succeeds! As we follow Jesus, we know who he is. We know who He calls us to be. And we also that He calls us to rise up in ways that bring God’s love and grace and mercy into our own lives and into the lives of people we touch.
As I was looking through some of the talents that I have not yet shared, I saw how many of them really do help to rise other people up. Here are a few more:
• God has given me the talent of being kind to make someone’s day 10 times better.
• God has given me the talent of encouraging others. I’ve used that in teaching special education, raising our daughter and even now teaching others mahjong and engaging through stories of their lives.
• God has given me the talent of inspiring others. I use this to teach showing others to believe in themselves.
• God has given me the talent of making people smile and be happy. I’ve used this and stores and other places.
• God has given me the gift of leadership. I’ve used this to call a pastor at my church.
• God has given me the gift of fixing things. I’ve used this to fix appliances instead of buying new ones troubleshooting electric wiring and houses and avoiding costly repair bills.
Keep on rising and helping others to rise too.
Pastor Donna