THANKFULNESS

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Hope you were able to connect with friends and family in special ways.

Let me share with you one of my dad’s jokes. When you are young and you go out to play tennis, your mind tells your body – fix your eye on the ball, leap forward into action, swing your racket decisively, and win that point! You know you are getting older when your mind gives those instructions, but your body responds “who? me?!?”

When I was a kid, I thought that was hilarious; now, I find my body speaking up with those same words more and more often: “who? me?!?” For instance, last year I tried my hand at pickle ball and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground (in the church parking lot, no less!) It gives me great encouragement that even as my muscles and joints become less inclined to “leap into action”, God’s faithful presence with me is just as strong as ever.

We often think of Paul the Apostle as a giant of faith, someone who never wavered, but 2nd Corinthians shows us a different side of his life. In 2nd Corinthians 12 Paul speaks with transparency about some undefined source of suffering that he was undergoing. Even though he prayed to the Lord to deliver him from this suffering, we can see God’s answer: But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” – 2 Cor. 12:9 (CSB) No matter what we go through, God is sufficient for whatever we face.

In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul gives us further encouragement to be honest with ourselves and our limitations, but to never give up on God’s gracious provision to us for each day. Paul wrote: Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. – Gal. 6:9 (CSB) How incredible! What God is doing in us and through us does not depend on us being fit and able, but rather on us not giving up. Louis Berkhof puts it like this: It is because God never forsakes His work that believers continue to stand to the very end.

I am very grateful to you, Olivet senior adults. There is so much about our church to be thankful for today, and so much of that comes to us because of God’s faithfulness to you, and through you in the past. And as long as we have a pulse, God has a purpose, for every sing

Jamie McElrath,

Senior Pastor