Here at Sanctuary First we’ve chosen the theme “Cheesed Off”  for the month of January because it reflects how many of us feel just after Christmas. The weather has been cold and miserable, the nights are long and dark and for a great number of people  all this has been compounded because  there is no prospect of the present  economic situation getting any better in the near future. Some have lost their jobs, others have had to take  a pay cut and the truth is if we hear the word austerity one more time it might just be enough to put the best of us over the edge.

The prayers and Bible readings this month are going to help us explore remedies to cope with being “Cheesed Off”.  How do we deal with our families when we feel aliened from them, our work situations when we work twice as hard and seldom receive any recognition, our Church especially if we’ve stopped going, our life when everything seems up in the air, and above all God when he seems distant and uninterested in our situation?

We think is important to realize that it is not possible nor even desirable to be living in a high all the time. We need the troughs and the challenges because these are the experiences that make us human and also make us more compassionate people.