A Word from Rev. Sara Shaver

This past Sunday I heard a sermon by our colleague Hays McKay on anger. One of the lines in particular that stuck with me was when he said to “reinterpret your rage in the spirit of Christ.” He talked about all kinds of things that can make us angry – traffic, long lines at the grocery store, paying speeding tickets or was it getting caught speeding? Anyway, it’s true isn’t it that there are all kinds of things that make us angry. I was particularly struck by what Hayes said about Facebook and the dangers of our anger. It is so easy for a few key strokes to assuage our anger but then it is out there forevermore. 
           
I’ve thought a lot about this over the past few days. I have two friends that seem to delight in arguing politics and being very unkind to each other on Facebook. Each I met in church and they are very devout in their faith and yet their venom and anger overshadows their witness. The letters written to strangers detailing where they have wronged the author seems to be a particular favorite way to lash out in our anger. But the last two weeks I have had a couple of friends who have periodically written short posts about the wonders of our God. Things like “God is faithful.” After hearing Hays’ sermon I began to think even more about those posts and how grateful I am to see them and how grateful to have friends who are pointing to the good and lovely. As Paul said to the people of Philippi, “finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
           
I am grateful for the daily reminders of God’s goodness whether it is on Facebook, the beauty of His creation or the joy of friends and family. I wonder what would happen if we all began to regularly post simple reminders of God’s goodness and faithfulness on our Facebook pages. I’m pretty sure we could change the world. 

Love,
Sara