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From Rev. Brock Patterson
"Slow, Medium, and Fast: God Loves It All!"
Where have you landed in 2023? We are on the downslope to already finishing our first month of the year and the Chapel shows little sign of slowing down. We are always moving forward, sometimes, so quickly that it’s difficult to just keep up. That’s quite fascinating and I love it! Most of the world takes a little “post-Holiday” break when the New Year begins. Not me!
Sometimes, that look backward can help, especially when the past is littered with mistakes. Those mistakes (failed efforts, unrealized hopes, poor response to change, and bad decisions, just to name a few) can be very helpful as one develops a vision for the future, or in this case, hope for the New Year. 2022 is gone. Hope now lies in 2023.
As many of you have learned, I don’t spend a whole lot of time dwelling on the past. For the most part, my reluctance to look backward is an acquired skill I use to encourage my movement forward. However, I know that sometimes, my perspective is flawed. An unwillingness to look back reduces my ability to learn from my mistakes. The result? I could be setting the stage to repeat similar mistakes in the future.
One of the challenges of racing downhill into a New Year is the awareness to use the brakes just enough to manage the curves ahead. Oh, I’m not advocating or planning anything specific. Instead, I’m just trying to teach myself to use my past as a better teaching tool to allow me to move forward more efficiently. God wants me to succeed. In fact, God is the captain of my cheerleaders, and no matter how well I’m playing, God is always hoping that I do life better this year.
How about you? Are you digging your heels into the mud to slow things down? Or are you running so fast that the rest of the world is already in your rearview mirror? I’m guessing the best place to be is somewhere in the middle: Appreciate the past and hope for the future. At the Chapel, we’ve got the best of both worlds. We have 67 years of history to propel us into the next 67 years of outreach and ministry.
No matter how quickly you are moving into 2023, the Chapel is a great place to belong. We will always be striving to move forward but we won’t leave anyone behind! Come see us soon!
God Bless.
Pastor Brock.
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