If We Make It through December

Whether Alan or Merle sang it, we've all heard "If We Make It through December." Just the title alone resonates with many of us. December can be a hard month, the year ending with a mad dash to pay bills, see family, afford presents, and a host of other things. Most of us can add "extra commitments at church" to the list of things stressing us out about the last month of the year.

It's definitely true that December/Christmas and Easter are the busy seasons for churches (and for good reason). Our work truly began this month (November). Think of what all we've done over the last month and what we're going to do as we finish out the year:

• food packing and delivery

• Thanksgiving dinner

• the Hanging of the Greens

• the Christmas play

• caroling

• canned food drive

• church on Christmas morning

• family game nights

• Veterans Day events

• Christmas parade/float

• New Year's Eve youth lock-in

. . . and a lot of other things, too. We've been a busy church! And it's made an impact both on us and on the community around us.

But if you're starting to flag a little bit, starting to wind down and tire out, let me encourage you to keep going. By all means, take care of yourself as you need to, but don't give up or get discouraged at the work still before us. Remember: we do what we do because people need to know the love of Jesus. Our mission statement is "Seek the lost. Save the found. Cultivate disciples." The Christmas season gives us the perfect chance to do all those things. Keep going!

As the song says: "if we make it through December, we'll be fine."