This Week at Trinity, Beamsville

Friday, February 14, 2020

Dear Friends,

            This week I had to seek a little wisdom (well, quite a bit actually) from our sixteen year old daughter and her friend/our other daughter.  I needed their help, as innumerable times this week, I’d either heard on the radio or received emails with promotions and sales, all in honour of ‘Galentine’s Day’.  Just when I think I am up to speed culturally, there’s something new that apparently isn’t new, which then leaves me feeling like I’ve just come out from under a rock.

            I listened carefully as they talked me through it, and then I offered an audible groan.  ‘What’s wrong with Galentine’s Day?’, they asked.  ‘Well, maybe nothing. I can’t really say I have an opinion yet… but I do have a worry this is going to be another Black Friday.’  ‘What? How are those even connected?’ ‘Because we live in a culture that can so quickly hyper-commercialize something or anything.  In a heartbeat things can become shallow.  Shallow is wearying.’

            I can’t say our conversation went much beyond that.  I suspect I scared them off.  I know for sure that my unplanned lament stayed with me for a while.  I’m not sure what spurred it, really.  I don’t think I’m overly surrounded by shallow – either people or elements of life – but I know that it’s there.  I know it’s part of the intricate human web.  Even so, I don’t think I’m consumed with worry about humanity as a whole.  I know there’s still great, God-honouring, Jesus-following  goodness and mercy to be known, one to another, with depth, promise, and hope.  Maybe I just lose sight of it every once in a while. 

             It’s not lost on me that this will arrive in your inbox on Valentine’s Day.  A couple of days after that, it will be Family Day.  While I’m more a fan of one ‘holiday’ than the other, I can say it seems nice when they fall within the same long weekend.  Commercialism aside (and as avoided as possible), it’s hard to go wrong with opportunities directed to honouring life-giving love.  Commercialism aside (and as avoided as possible), it’s hard to miss opportunities to extend and include all in the circles of celebration.  Without mind or worry of relationship status or relational connection, heart days and family days are ours to redefine, replacing boundaries and boxes with goodness and mercy, depth and promise, and hope. 

            Wherever you are this weekend, and whomever you call your beloved, may you know that God is calling you to live with them, and for them, in the name of something, some One, far beyond anything we might capture in a card or an ad.  May you know that you and they, all of us together, are held in an unquantifiable Love that gives us all the integrity and wisdom we need, to make choices for the good of the whole – every, beautiful, extraordinary day of the year. 

With love to you all,

Heather

“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than professing them.”

(Brené Brown)