There’s an old story about an American hunter who was in search of big game in West Africa. He was closing in on his prey when his hard-running local guides suddenly sat down to rest. The hunter complained to their leader. The leader in turn threatened, implored, and even offered bribes, but the guides wouldn’t budge.

“But, why are they stopping now?” the hunter asked. The leader replied: “The men say they have hurried too fast. Their bodies have run off and left their souls behind. They must wait now for their souls to catch up.”

Maybe that is one of our problems today. We are racing through life so fast, trying to do so much, running from one activity to the next that our souls are being left behind. I know that in my own life, if I don’t make time to stop and rest and play and pray, then my soul dries up. I feel empty and anxious and wonder why God seems so distant.

I wonder what it is that restores your soul. Where do you find times of refreshing and renewal? Amid a busy holiday season, I pray that you would carve out that time and allow your soul to catch up.

Our prayer today was written by our founder, Roger Kunkel. Let us pray:  Loving God, blow your spirit of gentleness and strength into the lives of those whose candles of hope grow dim and weak. Weave your grace into the patchwork quilts that are the days of our lives. Tune our hearts to the anthems of peace and take us home when our day is done. For we ask these things with souls full of the love you showed us in the life of your son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Today’s message was written by Rev. Dr. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Because of the coming of Jesus Christ, Christmas is the good news that hope is real. Hope is always a faith possibility. In Hebrews 10:23 we read: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.”

One day, very close to Christmas, a child was coming down the hall at church. He had in his hand a little ceramic tray that he had made for his mother. As he ran down the hall, he tripped and fell. The tray broke into several pieces. The child was devastated. He began to cry loudly and uncontrollably. People tried to comfort him with all kinds of advice: “It was just a tray.” “You can make another one.” “You can give your mother something else.” The child was inconsolable. Finally, his mother arrived on the scene.

She immediately realized what had happened. Bending down beside her son and his broken gift, she said, “Well, now, let’s pick up the pieces and take it all home. We’ll put it together and see what we can make of it.”

Isn’t that exactly what the Christmas message of hope is about? The world is broken into many fragments, as are our lives. God stoops down beside us. “Well, now,” God says, “Let me help you pick up the pieces. We’ll put it back together and see what we can make of it.”

On a night long ago, God walked down the stairs of heaven with a tiny child in his arms. That child is a source of hope in human life. Friend of Dial Hope, be a sign of hope in a fragmented world. God has blessed you to be a blessing to others.

Let us pray: Loving God, in this season of waiting and yearning, give us the grace to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes, to the edges of our fingertips. Come and make all things new. Be born in us today and lead us to the light of your love. Help us, with your grace, to make this day a masterpiece. Through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Amen.

In his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul left his young minister friend with some advice for those who are rich.

I have to confess that I never thought of myself as rich until I spent a year teaching in Jamaica. I remember one of my students asking if it were true that even poor people in the United States had flush toilets. Many of them lived in shacks with dirt floors, no water or electricity. My perspective began to change, and I felt wealthy. My perspective changed even more when as a young pastor I began to make regular calls to the hospital. I felt rich in health. Today, when I sit at the dinner table, I realize that I am rich in family and friends.

Paul wrote to those of us who are rich, “…command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God… They are to do good, be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that is really life.

Riches may indeed come and go, but God is faithful. Paul reminds me that when I share out of my abundance now, I tap into a deeper life and I lay a foundation that offers more than riches ever could.

Let us pray: Loving God, You have blessed each of us in some way, shape, or form. And we remember that you have blessed us to be a blessing. We all have something to share, O God, and we don’t have to look far to see someone who is in need. Today, as we offer our smiles, our time, our intelligence, our money, our humor, our talents, our friendship, may our gifts make a difference in the world around us and in the world within us. Today we also pray especially for those who serve us – teachers, firefighters, police officers, politicians, military personnel, and others. May they know our gratitude and your love. Amen.

Author Sue Monk Kidd once told a story about when her daughter was small and got the seemingly small part of the Bethlehem star in a Christmas play. After her first rehearsal, she burst through the door with her costume, a five-pointed star lined in shiny gold tinsel designed to drape over her like a sandwich board. “What exactly will you be doing in the play?” her mother asked her. “I just stand there and shine,” her daughter answered.

I love that!

My friend Debbie Abbott was the Christian Educator a previous church I served. I’ll never forget that when asked how she was doing, she would inevitably respond, “Shining brightly!” She also was ever encouraging the children to respond in the same way.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before others in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

I pray that in your own life, through your kindness to others, through your generosity, through your work for what is right and just, through your acts of compassion, you would ever find ways to shine brightly!

Let us pray: God of hope, I pray today especially for those who are carrying heavy burdens and for others who are struggling to get by day today. It is hard to shine when you feel you are at the end of your rope. I ask you to meet them at the deepest point of their need. Wash over them, and each of us, with your grace that we might be filled anew with your Spirit. May your light pierce even the dark and shine on through. Amen.

Many years ago, I had a friend who went through a terrible divorce. She had two children who were caught up in the middle of it all. There was a great fight over custody. Things seemed to go from bad to worse. And then her father, who had been her advocate, right in the midst of all this got so sick that he was hospitalized.

She said she was never much of a person of prayer, but she found herself there one night praying by his bedside. And while she was praying she felt this overwhelming sense of God’s presence. She told me it was almost as if God were saying to her, “I’m going to carry you through.”

I remember one year a church I was serving hosted a regional gathering of Stephen Ministers. An older gentleman came to speak as a keynote. Right away it was clear that he was speaking out of a deeply personal experience. He had grown up a nominal Catholic, only attending church on Christmas and Easter. But that changed.

He shared with us that 10 years earlier his 21-year-old daughter was killed in an alcohol-related car crash. Of course, it was devastating. In trying to work through his grief and pain, he reconnected to his faith in a powerful way. He had joined a Benedictine community, not an ordained monk, but as a lay oblate. He had taken a set of vows and committed to the daily disciplines. As a piece of this, he was volunteering with Stephen Ministries – attempting to help others through their pain. He told us, “God met me in my darkest moment, and God continues to meet me as I minister to others in their darkest moments.”

I’ve heard many other stories, from many other people across the years who made similar claims, that it was at a dark time that God came into their lives in a powerful way. These stories always remind me that there are no promises that God will take away the suffering or hardship in life. However, God does meet us there. In fact, the scriptures do assure us that it is precisely within the darkness and heartache and disappointments of life that God is at work… And the last word has yet to be spoken.

Let us pray: We remember today, O God, that ultimately, suffering does not have the last word. For you are a God who brings light out of darkness, hope out of despair, and even life out of death. We ask you to meet us today at our own deepest point of need. Grant us your courage and strength, and infuse us with hope. We ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.