Thank You for Our Biblical Response to Adversity

On the first Sunday of 2025 I said: the biblical response to adversity is gratitude. This has proven to be a defining statement for us. It has shaped us as a people of God, and it has confirmed our identity to the community around us. It guides us to model right behavior when things are tricky and the waters are choppy. So as we prepare to enter Christmas, I want to share some things I am thankful to God for this Advent in a way that may line up better with my statement above: 

• I am thankful for a tired staff who has worked so hard this season to make sure not only that our congregation is able to have a holy Advent where Jesus is made known, but also persons throughout our community who had needs during this season. You probably won’t see most of them for a few days as they recover. 
• I am thankful for cold winter days that give us the opportunity to serve Jesus. It was cold the day we lit our Christmas tree on the front yard, yet we had a large group come to the pavilion before and huddle around a raging fire and cooked s'mores and fellowshipped together. It was cold on the day of the Christmas parade, yet we gathered with hot chocolate to be together. It was cold when we had our food giveaway, but we were out in it serving and being Jesus together. There is warmth in the cold. 
  
• I am thankful for busy schedules, because it reminds me that this season is important. 
  
• I am thankful when my family gets on my nerves, because I can’t imagine life without them. 
• I am thankful for darkness in the world, because it makes me appreciate the light even more. 
  
• I am thankful that there was no room in the inn, because it reminds me that God makes a way when there seems to be no way. 
  
• I am thankful Mary and Joseph had to travel and be away from home, because I know home can be an elusive thing for so many in our world. The Christmas message longs for a people wanting to go home. 
  
• I am thankful that everything went wrong for Mary and Joseph leading up to the birth of Jesus, because I need that reminder that good can come out of the brokenness of life. God’s will for humanity is bigger than the circumstances in which we find ourselves. 
  
• I am thankful that the shepherds (the lowest class of people in that day) were the first to hear the birth announcement from angels and see and worship the newborn Christ child. That means no one is excluded from being welcomed into the family of God. 
  
• I am thankful for the noise around me, because it helps me appreciate and know how much the world needs a silent night tonight. 
  
• Finally, I am thankful that with each divisive statement and each piece of hateful rhetoric I see in our world, it is making us fed up with our warring ways and making us long for a day when peace will reign in our lives and our world. 

Let us usher in the Prince of Peace in our world this night with the dawn of Christmas. 

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. 

Merry Christmas friends.

I am also thankful to God I get to be your pastor. 

Reflect & Respond

• Where have you encountered adversity in 2025?
• How has gratitude accompanied adversity for you in those times?
• What are you looking forward to in 2026?