Upcoming Events
St. Luke’s has reopened for Worship outdoors (weather permitting) or indoors
Worship will also be held on Zoom Sunday mornings at 10AM
For the Zoom links, please email stluke654@aol.com
The worship service will continue to be recorded and posted here
Sunday School lessons and activities are emailed to all registered families
To register for Sunday School and receive the weekly lessons email mmcevoy33@aol.com
Weekly Prayer Group is held on Wednesday mornings at 10AM
for information contact elizabeth.lizzieb718@gmail.com
Come to Me You Who are Weary
Here and there you either hear or sense that people are tired.
Probably you too. As we journey together this Lent the need to be close to
Christ, sustained by faith in God is stronger than ever. So too is our need
of one another.
Our journey through this pandemic, racial and political upheaval,
began last Lent and has continued into this one. Is it any wonder that we
are weary?
This is a critical emotional time for you and for all of us, because with a sense of
hope in vaccines and all that promises down the line, we have started to see the “light at the
end of the tunnel”. And that makes it a harder, not easier time.
We have all been through trauma, some directly; some indirectly. Once the traumatic
event looks to be lifting, that is when our emotions come flooding in, guard down.
Soldiers return from war. It is when they return home that fear, anxiety, and anger
come.
You survive an accident but days later you begin to feel the pains and vulnerability.
You lose someone you love. The shock may begin to wear off after the busy-ness of
the funeral is over or it may be years. Then the tears arise as if they have a life of their own.
Raw feelings sneak up on you when it begins to feel that it is a bit safer.
All of these and the trauma we have all been going through are examples of PTSD,
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. With the impact on the “post”.
So I want you to be kind and gentle to yourself, as well as to other people. It is a season of feelings arising – irritability or anger, sadness, new anxieties, loneliness, negative
thoughts, denial (which can be another way of avoiding all these) come and go; sneak up
when you least expect it.
I am feeling this too. I also see it in others.
We are all going to see this through, of course. But right now hold onto Christ’s
promise: “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yolk upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11: 28-29)
It’s time to be gentle and be restored (Psalm 23), which takes time. Prayer, reading
some scripture, charity to others, charitableness by forgiving and being forgiven, help. They
draw us closer to the Lord.
A friend of mine told me recently that when he was in the army during the Vietnam
war, he was trying to cross a highway in Saigon. The cars and motorbikes seemed to never
stop whizzing by the eight-lane highway. He was frozen and couldn’t see his way across.
Suddenly he felt someone take his hand and lead him across to the other side. It was
a little child who could sense his fear, took his hand, and helped him to safely reach the other
side, then walked away without a word, into the crowd.
Sometimes holding a hand is all we need.
Be gentle with yourself and others. Forgive easily and forgive yourself with the love
and forgiveness the Lord offers.
Take His hand.
Pastor Bill Damrow