From Our Associate Pastor: Faith

For years, I rolled my eyes at the thought of owning an e-reader. I

snobbishly maintained that people who owned e-readers actually didn’t like reading all that much. Who in their right mind would dare call themselves a book worm while willingly abstaining from the musty aroma of old paper? What kind of a book enthusiast didn’t actually love books themselves? I, on the other hand, was a genuine lover of the written word with piles of vintage paperbacks to prove it.

I started to change my tune a bit when my best friend Martha bought a Kindle for her honeymoon. She and her husband Greg were going to spend two weeks in Greece, and a Kindle meant not having to lug an extra 20 pounds of paper around Mykonos. Over time, other benefits came to light. Martha and I were in a book club together and she’d often get her eBooks from the library weeks before I ever got my hands on a physical copy. Martha always read more than me, but suddenly she was outpacing me by a book or two a month. All this made me curious enough to set aside some of my pretensions. So on Amazon Prime Day last July, I finally bit the bullet and bought a reduced-price Kindle Paperwhite.

Reader, I was an instant convert. The Kindle fit perfectly in my purse, which meant I could always read on the go. Library books popped up on my home screen in a matter of seconds. The battery took weeks and weeks to die. I was doom scrolling less and reading more books than ever before. Before I knew it, I was a

full-blown evangelist. Anyone who dared ask me what I was reading lately could count on one hand the

number of seconds it took for me to throw my Kindle in their hands and delightedly exclaim, “see how light it feels!”

I recently got lunch with a fellow clergy colleague. During our conversation we beleaguered the

challenges of evangelism in today’s church. “It’s easy to invite other people over for dinner or to a basketball game because we’re excited about those things,” my colleague said. “The problem is we sort of look at church like it’s a chore, like something we have to do.”

I know I’m guilty of this. I’m sometimes a bit sheepish about my faith. When I tell people what I do for a living, I immediately start naming all the ways I’m “not like other Christians.” I’ve become so worn down by fire-and-brimstone televangelists and Christian nationalists that I’ve lost some of the joy and excitement that comes with the life of faith. I’ve become so bogged down by the challenges of the church today that at

times I’ve forgotten that the Good News is, indeed, good news worth sharing with people.

The truth is, the Good News has done more for me than any piece of technology ever could. I am a more empathetic, open hearted person because I believe with all that I am that God truly loves my neighbor as much as God loves me. My life is fuller because I believe the very best things in life are gifts that are never earned. My relationships are deeper because I’m part of a faith tradition that asks me to consider

the needs of others above my own.

I hope you share your faith with the world because you’re excited about it. I hope you share through the witness of your everyday life. I hope you talk about your faith because your relationship with Jesus means something to you. I hope you tell people about the ministry of this church because the work happening here makes you come alive. I hope you do all of this because you know that faith is a gift that can’t help but be

passed along.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Haley Hansen