A couple of reminders – this Sunday we have a congregational meeting where we’ll have our annual report, discuss the budget, and vote on my call for next year.  We start at 9:30 am and we really need you there in order to have enough votes to make it official. 

Second, let me gently remind you that we are still required to wear our masks and keep our distance.  As the coronavirus is spreading, and while we wait for the vaccine, we need to be extra diligent in keeping up our safety protocols.  I know it’s getting old and I don’t like it either, but it’s how we care for one another.  Also, we tape off every other row in order to help keep the proper distance between families.  Please don’t remove the tape or sit in any of those rows.  Thanks.

Anyway, this week we’re continuing our Advent series “Unexpected Joy: A Christmas with Jonah.”  This week we’ll be in chapter 2 and looking at one of the great prayers of the Old Testament.  It a prayer for one who has come to the end of themselves.  Now, I doubt anyone has done time in the belly of a whale, but I think most of us can recall circumstances that have driven us to the end of ourselves.  Our greatest trials have driven us to ask,  “How will I get out of this?  How will I recover? Will I ever again have hope?”

Sometimes it’s our own foolishness and sin that drive us to such circumstances.  In such times, we don’t feel confident.  We don’t feel thankful.  When I first sat down and read this passage, the images that struck me most were the heart of the seas, the flood surrounded me, and waves and billows passed over me (Jonah 2:3).  My eyes are drawn to the depths.  Of course, Jonah’s prayer is not about the depths themselves, but a remarkable reminder to us of the great grace of God and the great hope we have in Him, even in the darkest of hours when it feels like the waves and sea billows have rolled over us and fear is flooding our hearts.

I know it’s been a year when many have felt just this way.  But let’s do all we can to make this Advent a special season reminding us of the great grace of God and the great hope we have in Him.  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave