Dear Friends,

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so you do also. In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

- Colossians 3:12-14

Adjusting my expectations! Of the many lessons the last almost 11 months, perhaps the most important has been about adjusting expectations. From the moment I heard news of the storm of February 6, few things if any have gone according to plan. This call from Paul to put on the “new self” has everything to do with unmet expectations and our response to them.

The distance between our expectations and reality is disappointment and frustration. It creates fear and hostility. We fear we will not get something we want or lose something we have. Hostility arises to defend what we have or to take what we want. Acting out of this fear and hostility damages others and our own souls.

Paul, instead, encourages us to live out our true identity as God’s holy and beloved sons and daughters. Living out this identity involves responding to disappointing and frustrating relationships, events, and circumstances. We reflect the character of our Father when we respond out of a compassionate heart with kind words and actions, a concern for the well-being of others, a helpful use of our strength, a willingness to wait, seeking to help one another, extending grace to others, and learning how to love in even the most difficult people in the most difficult situations.

Things to Know

* This Week’s Worship – We will meet at our normally scheduled times (8, 9:30, 11am). As with last week, due to a lack of available volunteers because of infections and/or quarantines, we will not have Child Care, Children’s Church, or Sunday School for children or adults. All three services will be live action and the 9:30 and 11am services will be livestreamed – here.

* Wednesday Nights – We are postponing our Wednesday night dinners until January 20 (we were originally going to start January 3) We will only have a family dinner that night. Children and adult programs will resume on February 3rd.

* Our teaching series - “Not Just Another Saturday!” We will continue our 5 week study of WPC’s Code statements. I would encourage you to take a listen to last week’s teaching on “Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing. You can see that here: livestream.

* Thank you for your faithfulness always, but particularly in the month of December. Thanks to the generosity and commitment of our covenant partners, our budget is in good shape at this point. We have also gotten closer to our stewardship goal.

Your friend

Steve Wise