The other day I had to go (begrudgingly) to Wal-Mart for something.  I walked through the section where the Christmas cards and such had been and noticed immediately that they had been replaced.  The aisle was completely full of Valentines merchandise.  We were even into the New Year yet and it was already out there.  Now, I could go on an endless tirade about the commercialization of our sacred holiday, but it was more importantly a reminder about how quickly time moves.

After finishing a wonderful Advent and Christmas season my attention has already turned to Lent and Easter.  I started working on sketches and tracking down the folks that I needed to implement the ideas that I have.  It is going to be an undertaking this year and it will have a lot of working parts.  I guess that is what has made the information in my REVEAL class so important.  We are doing big things right now but it takes a lot of people doing small things to make big things happen effectively.

I spent some time with my new unit this past weekend in San Antonio and tried to get a grasp on what it is that they are all about.  The unit has four different types of soldiers with four different responsibilities.  The interesting thing is that without one section the other three become moderately ineffective or even completely fail.  I look at ministry the same way.  If we are not contributing to the ministries of the Church then we cripple our effectiveness in proclaiming the Gospel.  And simply put, we don’t have time for that.  The next season is already right upon us.

So what is your small part?  How can you help us be more effective?  Those are questions that are being answered through REVEAL and other classes that are going on every Sunday morning and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Turning the teaching to action is vital for us to have amazing ministry.  Putting all the small pieces together into one beautiful picture is what we are about.  And as we let God’s hand direct those pieces, it will all come together.  So come to classes, find out what the opportunities for service are and get into it because we aren’t as effective without you.

And don’t worry…if Lent and Easter are all full up, VBS is not far behind and before you know it, it will be Advent again.  Don’t blink…you might miss something.        In His Arms, Chip