100 Days to a Healthier ChurchSample

Day 4 Today’s Big Idea: Pondering. Before embarking on anything major in our lives, it’s a good idea to slow down and consider what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what the possible results might be. The underlying principle behind this is a seldom-practiced Christian discipline, based on an almost-forgotten word: pondering. Key Verse: But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). Thoughts to Consider: Hey, isn’t this a Christmas passage? Yes, it is. But it’s important for us to detach it from the tinsel, garland, and colored lights and try to read it with fresh eyes. What did it mean to a young (probably teenaged) girl who knew that the baby she had just given birth to was God in flesh and that His life would change the world more than any other life ever lived? What do you think and feel when you ponder this time of new beginnings for your church? Are you excited? Scared? Worried? Joyful? Concerned? Maybe all of the above? We have to imagine Mary experienced all of those feelings too. But, instead of panicking, she took time to ponder them so she could keep moving forward into that frightening, exhilarating, and uncertain future, knowing God’s plans were bigger than her deepest fears and greater than her highest hopes.