September 2023
The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you.
– Exodus 20:10
As much as I love summer, I love the feeling as fall starts to settle in. In September, we seem to settle back into regular routines. There’s a rhythm that comes back to life as the leaves start to turn and our coffee warms up crisp mornings. At church, pews will start to fill back up, the young folks will scamper off to Sunday school part-way through the service, and much of our programming will return.
At Union Grove Congregational UCC, we’re gearing up for community meals and fellowship gatherings after worship. Our Mission, Outreach, and Community Life team has been bubbling with new ideas, and we’ll be starting a Random Acts of Kindness mission to spread kindness in the community and doing a Blessing of the Animals in October.
At Raymond Community Church UCC, our Fall Fest team has been working hard and it’s sure to be a great celebration at the end of the month! We’re also getting Amazing Grays luncheons going again, and we’re kicking off a new program for our young folks called First Fridays, where we’ll have food, fun, and faith exploration programming on the first Friday of every month this fall.
As we step into what is sure to be a busy season, I pray that you also find moments to rest. Pay attention to what you say “yes” to and remember that “no” is also a holy, complete sentence. As I reminded you in last year’s September pastor’s note: you don’t have to have something on your calendar to be unavailable. Rest is a perfectly good reason to say no.
Fall teaches us that saying no and letting go is a necessary part of life. The leaves have to turn colors and fall off the trees in order for new buds to eventually show up in spring. The grass has to go dormant. The soil needs to rest. And so do we. Even God rested, and then commanded that we do the same.
With all of the excitement of everything happening this fall, I pray that you rest. Say no to something. Don’t answer that email right away. Put your feet up. Rest.
As Anne Lammott once wrote, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
With love and gratitude,
Pastor Kelsey
