If you’re waiting for a signal, or an invitation, or a special occasion, consider this to be the moment you’ve been waiting for: We miss you. Surely the God of heaven and earth does not need your worship, but we need your presence in worship to make our Joy complete.

One of the most conspicuous continued signs at Joy that things aren’t “back to normal” is that we’ve continued to have just a single Sunday worship service at 9:30am ever since we went online-only almost exactly two years ago.

Out of all the many blessings God has given to us, what do we intend to return to God’s mission through Joy?

We are reminded, then, that this is not our momentum, but God’s. It’s not our work to fret over, but the work of the Holy Spirit in us, through us and with others. It’s not our many sacrifices that save, but the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It’s a good time to grab a cozy blanket and your favorite warm beverage, wear a quality mask in public, avoid others if you have upper respiratory symptoms, and check in on others to see if there’s anything they need.

On Thanksgiving many of us are able to gather with family or friends, or at least remember them and their love. Maybe more than any other holiday it has stayed truest to its original purpose: to remind us of all we have, and where it comes from.

It’s been 18 months since I’ve seen some Joy folks in person. That list keeps shrinking with hospital visits, driveway visits, running into folks at funerals or the grocery store, and more. But it’s been a hard period of physical separation.

“How long, O Lord…? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!”

As Psalm 24 has it: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it!”

Do you ever feel caught between those who insist on spreading bad news, and the fears and anxieties that accompany it, and those who insist, ostrich-like, that everything is going to be fine--perhaps because really addressing the underlying causes might cost them too dearly?