January 31, 2023

Rejoice in the Lord, always!
And again I say, Rejoice!

These words, sung by our choir, surrounded our sanctuary as we began the late service last Sunday. I was out-of-town but they also surrounded me as I listened from my hotel room.

I think I go to worship (or last week, “tune in to worship”) because I need these reminders.

For me, the dark days of late winter, post-holidays, pre-spring, are some of the toughest days. The darkness and grayness of these days sometimes can put me into a kind of funk.

So I am glad for these little reminders to “rejoice”. Even when I don’t feel like rejoicing, to give it a go, and beat back the doldrums of these cold and sterile winter days.

This past week, in my time away, I had a chance to visit a dear friend and his wife who has been recently diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a disease that slowly, but surely, robs a person of thoughts and memory and even current conversations.

Their lives have changed. Their futures have changed. But they are in it together. And I have to say, she was always such a pleasant person, and is just as pleasant in the midst of this illness. My grandmother used to say that when you age, you don’t really get older, you just get “more so.”

So even though they are headed to unknown places, it was good to be with my friends. To laugh with them, to sing with them, to rejoice with them at this stage in their lives.

Things rarely go perfectly in this life. There are bumps and detours and things that we never expected. But God is with us, and so we:

Rejoice in the Lord, always!
And again I say, Rejoice!

Pastor John D. Morris