It’s the day before Thanksgiving ’25, and the holiday season is officially here! So, how are YOU doing?
“Oh God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety” (Psalm 61:1, 2 NLT).
Unmasked!
There is a certain cheerful energy that permeates our spirits and warms our hearts as we approach the holidays. Gathering for Thanksgiving with family and friends who allow us to relax and be who we are, sending and receiving cards in the mail, shopping for just the right gifts, or just having time to step away from the daily routine of rush hour commutes and the demands of work, and watching some Christmas movies all spark feelings of joy. The holidays also spark reflections on special times spent with loved ones who are now only in our cherished memories.
Many are overwhelmed by a sense of loss. Indeed, there is a dichotomous phenomenon that often plays out quietly and usually unnoticed all around us. We may not know the depth of emotional pain that someone we are with each day is carrying deeply within. We miss it because, as the great poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, expressed,
“With torn and bleeding hearts we smile… We wear the mask. We smile, but O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.”
When I was a secondary school principal, I observed that many children who were without appropriate strategies and supports to manage their feelings of loss often resorted to acting out behaviors. Accordingly, I deemed it critical to remind my adult staff of the increased importance of upholding our in loco parentis responsibilities to be surrogate parents to our students during the pre-holiday days.
And just as every child in the school environment needs a caring adult to help them feel valued, we adults also need shoulders to lean on, someone to help us bear our burdens. So, as the teachers in the schools I led were encouraged to treat each student as though they were their own child, I believe we should value our ministry colleagues as members of our own family. Appreciate that some, possibly more than usual now, may be smiling with “torn and bleeding hearts” during this special season of the year. Give them your shoulder to lean on and give everyone a genuine smile and a warm and sincere greeting. We all need sincere caring more than we need the material things we often give during this season.
My wife and I, in our roles as chair/co-chair of the GMCHC Sick and Shut-in Ministry, have had the opportunity, especially in the past couple of days, to pray with individuals who are physically and emotionally stressed. I know that many of you have similar experiences of supporting hurting individuals. I pray that as you help lighten the burdens of others, you will have an even more blessed, bountiful, and joyful Thanksgiving Day!!
Focus Quote: “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. –Galatians 6:2 NLT
Special Note: Please pray especially for Calvary member, Sister Rhonda White and her family. Sister Rhonda’s daughter, Trinity, has been in the hospital since the start of November and is VERY ill. A couple of years ago, when Rhonda was one of my students in Calvary Bible Institute, she was beset by the loss of her sister, not long after the passing of her mother, and was unable to continue in the course. Please, let’s surround her and her family with prayer NOW.
And please continue to join us for our 5:14 pm prayer. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). Just pause and pray wherever you are. Just connect to God and pray! We and many others will also be praying with you. There is power in agreement!
Blessings and Love,
Elder Alton E. Sumner, D. Min
Listening to the Soul! Lightening the Heart! Lifting the Spirit!
