I hope you will take the time to consider utilizing the resources related to mental health shown in this month’s newsletter. Be it a small group discussion about one of the sermons on the various emotions, or the community health needs focus group, the way we approach this season can have a significant impact on our ability to maneuver whatever the next season may have for us and for those we love. (If some of this sounds like a repeat of last month’s article, it is because I do not want the next season to catch us off guard or find us having too few resources for too much stress and uncertainty.)

You may be thinking, “what stress?”, “what uncertainty?”, “does he know something I don’t know?” To those questions, I will say that if the past can tell us anything about the future, it is that the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. We simply do not hold the knowledge of the future, nor can today’s actions completely control tomorrow’s outcomes.

Yes, tomorrow can be influenced by today, but it will not be in complete control. I may decide to be more open to the pain suffered by minority communities, but I cannot control all that happens as a result of the next black man killed by a police officer or the next police officer killed by a black man. I may seek to understand the position of the anti-vaxxers, but I do not know how the next CDC announcement will change the trajectory of conversation for or against the vaccine. I also cannot project how you may feel about the fact that I used the two preceding examples. Simply put, we do not have the control we would like to have.

And yet, we do have more control than we think we have. We can be in control of our next steps – our reactions – to what happens. We can take ownership (at least partially) for what happens as a result of our next steps. We know that even as we follow what we believe God is guiding us to do, we are the ones taking the next steps. We are not mindless holograms or robots! Our feet. Our hands. Our steps. Our voice.

Our decision to engage all that we know about ourselves to all that we know of God; including the emotional side of what makes us…us. Please open your heart and mind to an emotionally healthy approach to this season in your journey of faith. Do it for the sake of others. Do it for the sake of yourself. Do it for the sake of God’s kingdom – a kingdom for which we pray and serve. Have a wonderful season!