Dear People of St. Bart’s,

If you’re like me, you’re ready to send 2020 to pasture. “So long, little fella,” you might mutter while a tear streams down your face. Or, maybe you’d like to take 2020 behind the woodshed and show it a thing or two. No matter, you’re probably highly conscious of what went wrong this year - rightly so because it was a lot.

And yet, I wonder what it would be like for us to take this final day of this unforgettable year and remember what God has done in us. Did you grow in prayer? Were you able to forgive someone? Did God unexpectedly provide? Have you grown in generosity towards others? Even your immediate household or family?

Reflect on some of these questions and see where they take you. I encourage you to take a pen and paper - maybe even a journal if that’s part of your daily routine - and write some thoughts down. Pay attention to what you feel, what you experience, and write about that as well. It might be that 2020, while a bear of a year, wasn’t as bad as we remember it after all. It might be that poised beneath the brokenness and heartache of a year gone wrong, there are buds ready to sprout. God only knows what fruit will be borne, what righteousness will be called forth. For, “weeping lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

You are a dear people to me, St. Bart’s. Here’s to a blessed new year!

Jay+