Rev. Libby Smith returns to our pulpit, this time to share a message about the need to overcome our reticence when it comes to expressing affirmation and love. Too often, we’re reluctant to let others know how deeply they touch our lives. Overcoming barriers and reservations to giving voice to our love could transform our world, and ourselves.

The winter holidays all focus on the need for light in the darkness. But it in this lull between the holidays, let’s pause to appreciate the darkness itself, not just as a backdrop that allows the light to shine, but in all of its own mystery and beauty.

If we want to build healthy communities, we need to tend to our individual health, to be mindful and intentional about how we choose to live. But in our fast-paced world, with its expectation that we be plugged in and ready to respond at a moment’s notice, it can be hard to claim the quiet time to go deeper and do that formative work. Remember when things slowed down for one day a week? Could we reclaim a sense of Sabbath time in our lives?