It is often hard to hear the revealed word that God wants us to know without being distracted by our own desires to advance ourselves and our position that either subconsciously or consciously counteracts the truth that we have heard from God because that truth is too difficult to fully understand as it relates to our lives.
Throughout the month of October, we are exploring stewardship. When someone becomes a member of a United Methodist Church, they are asked if they will participate with their presence, prayers, gifts, service, and witness. Last week, we explored presence. This week we take a look at prayer.
I know people who bring a Godly presence with them wherever they go. The presence I am thinking about is the understanding that those people have invited God with them in as many places as they want God to walk with them into.
How do we help to heal the people and the land that we live in today? We need healing not just because we have been living through a pandemic but also because we needed healing long before the pandemic began. We needed healing, in large part, because of the increasingly isolated society that we have adopted that is based on an independent and self-reliant culture that has been forged since our country gained its independence from England.
Isn't it funny, and by funny, I mean complex, messy, and chaotic, that so often the things that bring us comfort can also cause so many complications? The last 18 months, the phrase "unprecedented times" has been used more than I can remember and if I'm being honest, at this point, they bring up a negative physical response. Unprecedented times. I don't know about you, but I struggle with the unprecedented, with the unknown, with the chaotic! I like order. I like direction, having a sense of what's going on. Uncertainty leaves me feeling more anxious than I'd like to admit.
What mindset and state of heart do we need to get us through a period of hardship, bleakness, or poor health? at one time or another, one or more of those negative things will visit us during our lifetime.
The last year and a half, unfortunately, was another opportunity to show how we handled an intense level of adversity, loneliness, and sickness. Thankfully we pushed through it to be where we are today! I am grateful to see the way that we have navigated the valleys and the peaks of the pandemic to this point.
I try to be as even-handed and balanced as I possibly can as a habit. I believe doing that can do much to provide for a stable environment in my life overall. And I also found out, it is the best way to relate positively to my family, friends, and those that I live around, work with, and serve in ministry. I think being balanced and evenhanded is seen by most as a good way to create and strengthen ties with the people one is close to, though many would agree that it is not always an easy thing to do consistently throughout our lives.
Can you remember a time when you had a disagreement with members of your family about how to best help someone or some group who needed assistance? It might have been another family member who was going through a difficult time or a group of people that have been suffering due to circumstances beyond their control.
One of the things that I love most about faith communities is that they are one of a few spaces that is regularly intergenerational. We are blessed to be a community of people of many ages!
What we have to learn and teach one another is immense and when we are open to those lessons, to learning, growing, and serving together, I truly believe we can change the world and that our worlds can change. This Sunday, our children and United Methodist Women members invite us to celebrate Children's Sabbath.
We have seen and heard things that people do and say that we cannot quite explain, but deep down in our hearts and minds we know why they happen. It may be that we have acted and spoken in similar ways even though we know that to do so goes against the Godly part of us.
In many ways, the Bible is a small library in and of itself. Genealogies, poetry, law, parables, and so much more can be found in scripture. For many, in times when we find ourselves seeking words of prayer, whether they be of praise and gratitude or anger and sorrow, we find ourselves flipping to the psalms. With 150 different psalms, there are words that can speak to quite a few of the different experiences we may find ourselves in throughout life.
We each have a calling placed on us as God's children and believers in God. Many of us are motivated to bring as many souls to the full knowledge of and lifelong faith in God through Jesus Christ as we can. Others of us are driven to help make better the lives of as many of those who have been left in economic poverty, social isolation, and termed undesirable, as possible.