It’s beginning to look a lot like a MESSY CHRISTMAS as we continue to experience our COVID logjam. Who would have ever imagined something like a virus would interrupt both Easter and Christmas in the same year? It’s unfathomable, and yet that’s where we find ourselves as Christmas 2020 approaches. This reality we’re living in makes Advent even more meaningful of an experience.

Advent began to commemorate the longing and waiting of the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, by God’s people. When you read the Old Testament, you find that God made promises of the coming of a Messiah who would set the nation of Israel free from oppression. When you read these promises and prophecies, you find amazingly accurate descriptions of what the Messiah would be like, what He would do for God’s people, where He would be born, and how He would be received.

We celebrate Christmas to commemorate the first coming of Jesus, and now we observe Advent to express our longing for the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus will come again. Yahoo! Now, we are in another waiting period where we are placing our hope in the second coming of Jesus. We are living in the time between, and just like it was for God’s people as they waited for Jesus to come the first time, we are required to wait and watch.

Each week we light a candle to remind us of God’s promises to us. We need supernatural HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE that helps us take our eyes off our current circumstances and to have our spirits lifted as we express our longing for His arrival. I want to ask you to engage each week during Advent and allow our focus to give you a confident way of approaching a very difficult, complicated, and messy season. You can watch as Kim and I talk about our Advent experience this week here.

Last week I invited you to join me in a 30-day gratitude experiment. How’s it going? I’m finding it to be uplifting as I am able to take my eyes off what is not right or not what I want and place them on what is good around me. For example, regarding our purposeful response to the color PURPLE restrictions we’re in, one person wrote and thanked me for helping her put her focus on what we can do instead of focusing wasted energy on what we can’t do.

After Christmas, I’ll ask you if the gratitude experiment made a difference in your attitude, joy, contentment, peace, and overall satisfaction. Let’s increase our joy together. Just make sure that when you post about gratitude that you use #TCC30DayGratitudeExperiment. Gratitude reminds us of how we’ve been blessed and generates emotional inertia to bless others. 

I hope you’ll go to our website and look at our Holiday Serve Opportunities to see how you can bless others during this holiday season. You’ll discover how you can bless a family by making a Christmas basket. You can bless an At-Risk Student by filling a Christmas stocking. You can serve your neighbors through intentional acts of kindness. You can donate to help Interfaith Food Ministry supply meals to resource-challenged families. You can give generously to our annual Year-End Gift fund so that our church is prepared to pivot and meet new needs in the upcoming year. Whatever you do, your generosity will allow God to be seen through your actions as you spread the love of Jesus to our community. 

It's Year-End Gift season. I was reminded this week on the National Day of Giving, with all the appeals that hit my inbox, how tremendously important each gift is to our church. When we give to our church, we get to see our gifts at work to help the hurting, the helpless, and the hopeless right here in our community and around the world. But more than that, we know that every gift we give goes to support and provide guidance to people who need to experience God’s love and compassion. What we do has eternal significance. When I was looking at the numerous ads that filled my inbox this week, I realized that there are some great causes I can give to and support, so what I do is make sure to give to those who are not just concerned with the physical, emotional, or mental needs people have, but also to make sure that the organization would also help with the deeper spiritual needs. If you want to know more about our Year-End Giving emphasis and how you can give, you can read about it on our website.

You may have seen the news about the overwhelming need our food banks are seeing as they help families who are food challenged. We can help Interfaith Food Ministries as we engage in our next "Shop, Stop, & Drop" Drive-Thru Food Drive. This is a no-contact, maximum-impact way to support our community and the growing number of people in need from COVID-19 hardships. We are asking for your help in donating much needed non-perishable food items! There is no need to leave your car. Simply drive to TCC’s parking lot between 8:00-10:30am on Friday, December 18 and follow the directions of the volunteers and signs.

We continue our Advent series this Sunday by looking at Matthew 1:18-25. It’s all about Messy Dreams. Sometimes God works in ways we just can’t understand or comprehend. These interruptions can create disequilibrium, chaos, and concern within us as we try to follow God faithfully even when it costs us our dreams.

During this time when it’s impossible for us to be on campus together, please make sure to stay engaged online. Let me encourage you to keep your Sunday rhythms by watching the service live at either 9:00 or 11:00am. I believe that will help you stay disciplined as we walk this road of COVID restrictions together. 

If you need, you can watch the current service or any archived service on demand any time you want right from our website or APP. Here’s an idea: When you’re watching online, please invite your friends to join you. If you haven’t downloaded the TCC APP, just go to the APP store and search for TCC GRASS VALLEY and download it today. You can watch the service right from your device.  

Joyfully living everyday life on mission in intimacy with Jesus and others,