A Message from the Pastor
Have you ever tried to sit on a one-legged, or even a two-legged stool?
Although you might manage to balance yourself for a short while, I can
guarantee that it will not be a comfortable seat if you stay there for any
amount of time. In a similar way our lives in faith need to be balanced
in order to be most productive. The three legs of our faith are:
- Worship
- Learning
- Service
The First Leg: Worship is the heart of the Christian faith. Each Sunday our community of faith gathers to hear the Word of God proclaimed and to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Nutritionists tell us that a good breakfast is needed to provide us energy for the day. In the same way Worship with Word and Sacrament fuels our faith for the week ahead.
The Second Leg: Learning continues to broaden and sharpen our minds to be receptive to the will of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that we are to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.” Too often we think that Christian learning ends with confirmation studies … and then we know it all. In reality teaching our children is only the beginning of a life-long venture in desiring to know more about our Lord and Savior.
The Third Leg: Service is putting our faith in action. Simply ‘knowing’ about God is not worth much if we don’t put it into action. Christian service can be as simple as providing help to a neighbor in need or preparing a meal for someone who is ill or grieving. It can mean giving our time to rebuild a community that has been devastated by disaster or reading to children who are ill. Through our church and a wide variety of community organizations the opportunities to serve are endless.
Although all three of these ‘legs’ are vitally important in our faith, none of them can stand alone. Simply attending worship without a desire to learn or serve, makes for a very wobbly stool. Likewise only being involved in Sunday School without an active commitment to worship and service creates a precarious stability in your spiritual balance. This fall, commit your life in faith to being “fully balanced.” You may just discover the stability you were looking for.
