JANUARY 2021 EDITION
THE WOODLANDS UMC
POINT PASS IT BACK THIS CHRISTMAS In college, the students had a tradition of “passing it back” during the football games which meant making the sign for the yell (or cheer) with your hands so that everyone could see it. Once you saw the sign, you’d make the same sign and so on until everyone knew what the next yell was going to be. Passing it back helped us remember that we were connected and celebrate what we shared in common. This Christmas season is a great time to be intentional about passing back a sign of hope. Of all the possessions we have to share with our friends and family, it’s our faith in a Savior that is most precious. It is the hope we have in Christ that helps us face whatever darkness is in front of us. It is the hope in Emmanuel (God with us) that reminds us that we are connected as a family of faith. I’ll be honest with you, some days I’ve had to search a little harder than others for hope, but my signs have often come from many of you. While I have had the privilege of teaching Radiant Bible study for about six years, I was not sure what we were going to do when COVID hit. How could we possibly have Bible study when we couldn’t be in person? But the hope that I experienced by seeing so many people tackle the technology world was incredible! I saw people learn skills they never planned to learn and then invite friends and family to join them. You didn’t let our circumstances keep you from sharing God’s Word, your prayers, and your smiles! There may be many things that we cannot share because of the pandemic our world is facing, but there is certainly one thing that we can pass back…and it’s hope! “Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” (1 Peter 1:13) Would you pass back a sign of hope to someone today?
A MESSAGE FROM
LEE BREWER
PASTOR TO SENIOR ADULTS
2021! I don’t think there has been a new year that I have looked forward to as much as this one! Surely, in the Lord’s mercy, this has got to be a much better year! Can I get an “Amen”? One of the things that comes along with a new year are New Year’s resolutions. However, let me shed some light on this practice. Forty-five percent of Americans usually set New Year’s Resolutions; seventeen percent infrequently set resolutions; thirty-eight percent never set resolutions. Eight percent are always successful in achieving their resolutions; nineteen percent achieve their resolutions every other year; fortynine percent have infrequent success; twenty-four percent (one in four) never succeed and have failed on every resolution every year. The younger you are, the more likely you are to achieve your resolutions (thirty-nine percent of those in their twenties achieve their resolutions every year or every other year, while less than fifteen percent of those over fifty achieve their resolutions every year or every other year). So, with those happy statistics in place, let me share one more: there is NO correlation between happiness and keeping New Year’s resolutions! People who make and keep resolutions are not better off than those who do not, which is especially good news to those of us in the less successful over fifty group, isn’t it?
Susan Kent
Instead of resolutions, we can be people who live into the reality that God has already given us. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17). As 2021 brings new and better things, remember that we are already new and the Lord is faithful to walk with us every step of the way. Rejoicing in newness!
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SENIOR ADULT MINISTRY!
Lee