Recognizing Good When You See it

Happy Friday Church,

My Father had this great saying that it took me years to understand. My Dad used to say “It takes a smart man to know when he is well off.” His quip often came after seeing a tragic story on TV or on the car ride home from a canoeing trip on the White River. At those moments he was not talking about financially well off either. That much I did figure out even back then.

Trust me, “well off” to my Father was not about money. I was young but something about the way my Dad said the phrase made me think, even then, that he was talking about something inside him. Others have said it this way …

Rare is the content human being.

Maybe the same concept from Ol’ Dick Davis could be true for an organization as well. Is it too hopeful or too prideful for an entire Church to say we are good, we are blessed, we are “well off”? Maybe we… the Pastors, Staff, Lay Leadership, and Congregants of First Methodist Mansfield had an incredible 2020? Maybe we did something special together? Maybe in the midst of a horrible year, we all learned something new that we can build on? Maybe we are even “well off” heading into 2021?

We believed in and understood the message of Jesus Christ so well that we stayed together as a very large Christian family even while being apart.

We put our local community and international mission needs ahead of our own desires all year. You gave over $60,000 to orphans in India and Africa on Christmas Eve alone!

We added 50+ new members to our family over the last 9 months at a time when finding a place to worship may have never been more difficult?

We lost loved ones and fought hardships maybe more than any other year yet look at how you called, supported, drove by, honked with, sat outside with, talked online, and prayed while all alone for one another.

While some were figuring out how to get half-open, we were rebuilding our entire web presence on a new engine for the future that takes us years forward on your ability to search for a past sermon, tell us you are watching, or get to our live calendar. www.fmcm.org is new, live, and launched without a hitch last Sunday morning.

And if all that is not enough… this Sunday Night we launch live UNITED Students Worship in our Sanctuary. Students singing and learning together in our church warms my soul even more. https://firstmethodistmansfield.org/ministries/students/

Yes, First Methodist Mansfield, we are “well off” and we owe it to the faithfulness of our Creator and to our love for one another. There is so much to do in 2021 but I personally go into it as content as a man can be.

TD