June is a busy month for fathers, students with graduations, brides and grooms with weddings, vacation planning, and summer preparation for family and the church. Congratulations to all! In twenty days, it will be one year since we moved into the parsonage to serve Butler United Methodist Church and the Butler community. How time flies! Our first year at BUMC has been fulfilling, from transitioning to meeting new people, learning names, sharing meals with good conversations, and one-on-one meetings to get to know church leaders and post-pandemic visions for the church.
Perhaps the most challenging has been learning how to navigate with one pastor serving one congregation when there have been two pastors in the past. Working together, we have made great strides and progress, and BUMC continues to be a fruitful and vital congregation! I am so grateful for your understanding as we, as one community of faith, continue to discover new ways to collaborate in the mission and ministries of BUMC.
As I reflect on this past year, I have noticed that I still have unpacked boxes! Most of them are books and paperwork from seminary and certification studies, personal files, and the craft supplies for the craft room where I spend my Sabbath days preparing crafts for children’s sermons and other church-related events. And I’m running out of storage space! I find myself shuffling boxes when cleaning the house, and at the end of the day, all I do is tidy up the area. Can you relate?
Did you know that our spiritual lives also need decluttering? Sometimes we go through a myriad of moods due to the clutter in our minds, heart, and soul.
Cluttered minds, hearts, and souls make accepting and sharing God’s love and purpose in our lives challenging. These feelings and emotions leave us feeling like a complete mess! I know the feeling full well! We have moved so many times, and each time I commit to decluttering and getting rid of unnecessary things, only to put tape around the box and write the word “stuff” on it. Then I carry those “stuff” boxes around, only never to open them again.
What emotional “stuff” are you carrying around for years? What feelings are you “storing away” to deal with “tomorrow”? What clutter hinders your desire and passion for creating, envisioning, and dreaming? What “pile of boxes” prevents you from seeing a bright, fruitful, and productive future? What “mess” keeps you from becoming the beloved child God has created you to be? Is procrastinating isolating you from others or putting a strain on your relationships with constant disagreements?
Join us in July for the sermon series, “Unboxing “Stuff”: Decluttering Mind, Heart, and Soul, on Sunday in English at 9:30 am and Spanish at 11:30 am. Let’s clean up nicely together!
In Christ,
Pastor Iraida