Goodness Weekly 12.11.23
“We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.”
-Clement of Alexandria
What’s Good
Second Saturday Is one of the many ways we encourage our neighborhood to join us here on campus. This weekend we saw traffic from yoga with one of our Sprouts School teachers, story time with a dear friend who stepped in to read while Chelsea was out of town, and our busiest day at the coffee trailer. The vibrancy on campus shone brightly on the unseasonably warm day, and we are so overjoyed to share that warmth with all who attended.
This Week
Sunday, Dec 17
11:30am Holiday Luncheon
4:30pm Worship
6pm Youth Group Christmas Party
Coming Up
Sunday, Dec 24 11am Christmas Eve Worship
Campus Closed for the week of Christmas. Normal office hours to resume Tuesday, January 2nd. Sunday evening groups will resume January 7th.
A Message from Taylor
Taylor Bates, Sunset Ridge Collective Deputy Director
Recently our family has been the recipients of multiple batches of excellent hand me downs—clothing for our children and toys that we will use as Christmas gifts. It has brought delight on all fronts. As a mother, I’ve dropped the mental load of picking out yet another season of clothing for my ever growing children. Unexpectedly our 3-year-old is at a stage where he can understand that “this was my cousin's jacket and he gave it to me.” His cousins don’t live in the same state as us so we don’t get to see them as often as we would like, but these simple objects—a used jacket, a baseball glove—connect us to one another.
There’s something special about an item being used by someone beloved to us as compared to an object that is brand new. I feel a special connection to the parents I know who take time to pick out and purchase a jacket for their child, and then later think to save it for us, to package it, and deliver it to us. We are linked together through these material objects that have been cared for, played with, and tended to, and now we will do the same.
Hand me downs feel like little rites of passage from one parent to another, that express “I’ve been through this season, and you can get through it too.” Every time I put my daughter in the rainbow sweater that was passed down from a friend I’ll think about her dressing her own daughter in it—during the rushed mornings of getting out the door that all seem to meld together. It’s a way of marking time and feeling connection, through this material culture that we share. What if we embraced this instead of our society’s insatiable desire to buy new?
My husband and I plan to give each of our children one “pre-loved” toy for Christmas and one new thing. I wonder what it would look like if the Christmas season shifted—to still be about giving and receiving, but not necessarily about always needing to be the newest, next best thing. What if we carefully mended our toys and gifted them to one another? Is the tending and caring and memory of the object more special? What if as a society we normalized re-use?
Perhaps in this season of gifting you can think of a creative way to pass along something that you no longer need but that has meaning to you and could have meaning to someone you care about.
Inhale:
May the joy I share
Exhale:
Take on a new life with others
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