First and foremost, my thanks to so many of you for your support around my unexpected absence over the last week. As an update: the surgery went well, and I continue to recover. I appreciate your continued patience as recovery will require me to be mostly absent over the next two weeks. I plan to lead worship on Sundays and be available as I can but recognize the need to get better before I pretend otherwise and undo progress. It’s with that in mind that I welcome your prayers for patience, and around next steps as I await the results of testing around the cancer’s spread. As I look beyond this moment, something I’m particularly keen to do right now, I can’t help but note the new year, the tradition of resolutions, of welcoming an external transition as internal motivation and opportunity. My favorite related United Methodist tradition is the Covenant Renewal Service, which we will experience together this Sunday. I hope to see you there, to share worship together as we recommit ourselves to the unique relationship between us and God. And, while those of you in small groups with me know my “no homework” rule, I do offer you John Wesley’s prayer at the heart of the service in advance if you’d like to utilize it. Pray it as the luster of Christmas fades, as the new year nears, or simply to recognize the covenant God so faithfully maintains and calls us into. See you Sunday -Ben “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” | 
