I was a greeter at my church last weekend. Arrayed in my mask in keeping with CDC guidelines, as well as six-feet social distancing, I was game-on! I love being a greeter, from my own experience of being greeted by a friendly face. It\u2019s heart-warming to notice being noticed. At my church, which holds 1,200 people, we are at 50% — following all the rules with an empty pew between pews and at least six-feet apart in the pews. I\u2019m still trying to get used to the masks \u2013 especially when my breath fogs up my glasses. ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I amused myself in between greeting people to take a look at our weekend bulletin. The title on the front of it was \u201cFaith Over Fear\u201d. I stopped in my tracks. \u201cFaith Over Fear\u201d is the caption on my black face mask. I think: \u201cGod, you are doing your best to get us, ME, to get that message, aren\u2019t You?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course He is. Our Gospel reading that weekend, was about the storm \u2013 the winds and the waves — that increased in hostility to the boat that was carrying the disciples to the other side of the sea. Jesus was exhausted after feeding the 5,000+, but He couldn\u2019t help but notice them struggling from His peaceful place on the mountain. I have a clear visual of this scene because of my trip to Israel and on my favorite place — the Sea of Galilee. It still amazes me that that relatively small body of water could blow up such a storm \u2013 but it did that day. Jesus walked to them on water and the disciples thought He was a ghost. But, like He said time and again \u2013 through the angels who said at His birth \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d and to His Mother when Gabriel appeared to tell her she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bear a son, \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d and to us today and every day: \u201cTake courage! It is I. Don\u2019t be afraid.\u201d — Matthew 14:27<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is our same Lord and Savior today Who sees us — right where we are and He knows our fears, concerns and anxieties. He speaks to us the same words of reassurance and hope that He spoke to His followers: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” May we rest in His promise that He is with us and will faithfully take us through the storms and to the other side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was a greeter at my church last weekend. Arrayed in my mask in keeping with CDC guidelines, as well as six-feet social distancing, I was game-on! I love being a greeter, from my own experience of being greeted by a friendly face. It\u2019s heart-warming to notice being noticed. At my church, which holds 1,200…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18274,17311,18272,1],"tags":[1210,18271,18268,1769,4242,17119,18121,1556,40,18270,5122,18269,16865,127,13016,12776],"class_list":["post-12954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cdc-guidelines","category-face-mask","category-faith-over-fear","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-bulletin","tag-cdc-codes","tag-christian","tag-do-not-be-afraid","tag-face-mask","tag-faith-over-fear","tag-greeter","tag-inspiration","tag-matthew-1427","tag-sea-of-galilee","tag-six-feet-apart","tag-social-distancing","tag-storm","tag-waves","tag-winds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12956,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12954\/revisions\/12956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}