December 30, 2024
Happy Monday, my friends! This is the last Monday Moment of 2024. It’s also the 52nd Monday Moment of 2024—there were 53 Mondays in 2024, but I missed one—and the 165th Monday Moment overall since I started on November 1, 2021. A few of you have been around since the beginning, and I appreciate everyone’s readership and fellowship on this journey of reflection, writing, and prayer, no matter how long you’ve been following. To be sure, Monday Moments will continue each week indefinitely into the future. I may not always be prepared or even excited to write one, but they have become part of my weekly routine, as have your responses. While my family has been going through the process of my mom’s recovery and physical rehabilitation, she has insisted that I read her all the Monday Moments she missed and each new week’s post.
In the month or so before I became Executive Director at LOVEboldly, but after I had been offered the position, I reached out to a mentor and friend who helped me frame my new role and identify solid transferable skills from a decade in higher education administration. One of her suggestions was to send the board a weekly message on either Monday—with a plan for the week—or Friday—with a recap of the week. I decided to add to that a very short (one paragraph max) reflection to those emails. The first one, with no special title, went out on the morning of my first day. After two or three, several board members said they appreciated the reflections but really didn’t need the updates. With the reflections expanded, our staff and board encouraged me to share Monday Moments on our website and on social media. By the beginning of 2022, we had a format, graphics, and a plan for getting the posts up each week by Monday morning.
Monday Moments were never intended to go beyond LOVEboldly’s board and were never meant to be more than a quick thought or some encouragement for the week ahead, yet they’ve become so much more. Sometimes academic, sometimes preachy, many times covering more than one significant issue in 500 to 750 words, several times written early on Monday morning, and more than once the words of others because I was too tired or uninspired to offer anything else. Nevertheless, Monday Moments have become a community onto itself and remind me that my role is as much organizational leader as it is pastor. I thank each of you for the privilege of being one of your pastors as well as your friend.
What do you get from Monday Moments? What do weekly reflections and writings from any source do for you?
Let us pray: Holy and Creative God, we celebrate the power of words, the sacred gift of writing and reflection that invites us to claim our voices, to tell our stories, and to reflect deeply on who we are and who we are becoming. We thank you for the power of writing—for the words that give life to our experiences. May our words be tools of healing, breaking the chains of shame, rejection, and invisibility. May our reflections lead us deeper into ourselves and into the world, awakening us to the interconnectedness of all people. Grant us the courage to reflect on our wounds and joys, and to offer our stories as a gift of liberation for others. In our words, may we find liberation. In our reflection, may we discover power. In the name of the One who is the Word made flesh, and who calls us to live fully and freely, we pray. Amen.
Blessings on your weeks and your New Years, my friends! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.
Faithfully,
Ben