Monday, March 27, 2006
My daughter came
out to the backyard with the phone in her hand and I though “What now?’ I had
been struggling on a hot, muggy June day, trying to mow some of the grass that
had clogged our backyard since the flood. I wasn’t making much progress and
when Ruth told me it was “Someone from the church who wants to talk to you,” I
confess, my first thought was, “Oh no, I can’t handle any more right now. I
can’t volunteer for one more thing.” So, I picked up the phone and said
“Hello,” hoping I could graciously refuse whomever it was.
It was Lori and
the first words I heard were, “Could you use some help?” God had answered a
prayer I didn’t even think to pray. He knew me so much better than I ever
would. It took me a few minutes to get over my “Oh no, I can do it myself”
feeling and Lori talked me into accepting help anyway, and I’m so glad she did.
A father,
daughter and son showed up at my door fifteen minutes later. The man took one
look at my beet red face and shooed me indoors, while he took over the mowing,
and his son and daughter finished the job of hauling out debris from our yard
that had floated over our fence and settled at the back of our yard. And they
weren’t done yet: they hauled out all the soaked belonging we hadn’t had the
energy to deal with yet, all to a nice pile on the curb, and only then did they
stop for some ice tea. We talked about the flood, their home state, and where I
was born. I found out they weren’t even United Methodists, but when they heard
help was needed, they came.
And so did
others. We received help from many people that summer, all of whom have become
very dear to me, an extension of my family. And I realized after that first day
that God never meant for us to go through this alone. He would be with us and
He would send help.
I’m so glad I
picked up the phone and accepted the help that God provided. We are all part of
His family, whether we’re United Methodists or not, and we all need to learn to
accept help when we need it, and be willing to offer it to others.
Sherry Lindquist
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
James 4:8
Draw near to God and he will draw near to
you.
Magnetism. That
is what this scripture makes us think of: the iconic image of the positive and
negative poles of a magnet pulling toward one another. There are many days we
feel that God is pulling a little harder than we are and vise versa. However,
we appreciate that the dynamic suggested puts us in the lead, we are asked to
draw near to God with the understanding that once we have taken the initiative
God will respond. What a comforting thought?!
But of course
this scripture can make it sound too simple. The everyday trials and
tribulations called life can overtake us and we can find that we are we are not
pulling away from God necessarily but we have interrupted our journey (for more
than just a commercial break). So, how do we stay the course and continue to
draw near to God yet still be productive in all other aspects of our lives? On
the flip side, we have both been very connected with God in certain moments and
we can find ourselves trying too hard to achieve that closeness again without
success.
It is our
thought that God asks us to seek a balance in all that we do: our prayer lives,
our giving, our time, our energy, and our professions. Perhaps it when
achieving that balance, even if it is for just a moment, that God is closest to
us. So is the answer to keep running with arms wide open on the expressway to
God with only one direction and purpose? Or perhaps we need to take the
secondary roads and enjoy the adventure. As a commercial says “on the road of
life there are passengers and there are drivers.” We would argue that we need
to play both roles on our faith journeys.
Sometimes we need God to help direct us so we can take the time to look
around and other times we may need to take the wheel and “drive” toward God.
What roads have
your prayers taken you down? Have you left the expressway recently? Where do
you stand on your faith journey, are you driving today or perhaps you are along
for the ride? Either way, we are thankful to be on this journey with you and
with each other.
Prayer: Dear Lord, please help us to
continue to draw nearer to you and please accept each of us as we approach you
from wherever we stand on the continuum of our faith journey. Amen.
Tori Scharp and Mark Cooper
Wednesday
March 29, 2006
Acts 6:4
But we will continue steadfastly in
prayer, and in the ministry of the word.
Steadfast does
not usually equal fun. It usually means we have to work hard at something for a
sustained period of time – that we have struggle to stay focused on the task at
hand. Steadfast is hard.
Prayer seems to
be a difficult thing to be steadfast about for many people. Maybe it is because
of busy schedules – we need to be DOING something or we are wasting time. Maybe
it is fear of intimacy with God or even with our selves. Maybe it is a sense of
unworthiness or fear. Maybe we are afraid of not doing it right. Maybe it is
because we do not know how to pray in a way that is meaningful to us – that
connects us to God.
Whatever the
reason, we need discipline to maintain an active, ongoing prayer life.
Devotionals like this one help provide the structure and motivation to pray and
reflect on a daily basis. Another way to help ourselves be steadfast in prayer
is to covenant with someone to pray for each other. The promise you make to
that person gives you more motivation. Joining a prayer group may help us to
pray more regularly. Praying with your family or friends before meals or before
bed helps us. Praying, even briefly, at meetings or social events helps
transform the nature of that gathering. But the most important thing is to
begin to be in touch with our yearning to know God and feel God’s love.
In some moments
of prayer, we may feel a deep and close connection to God. In others, we may
feel like we are reaching out blindly in the darkness, yearning for the grace
that we believe in and hope for but do not feel in that moment. God is our
source and we seem to have an innate yearning to be connected to that source.
That yearning is why we continue to pray – why we find the motivation to pray.
Prayer does not
have to be boring. It does not have to be scary. It does not have to be quiet,
It does not have to be long. It does not have to be lonely. We don’t have to
bring ourselves to God in fear and trembling. If we develop our prayer life
based on that yearning to be connected rather than out of a sense of duty,
prayer becomes a hopeful and even joyful experience of relationship with the
God of love and peace who is with us always and who has loved us from the
beginning.
Our God, who Jesus called ‘Abba’ or
‘Daddy’, we know that you love us as much as the most wonderful father or
mother loves his or her child. This knowledge fills us with joy! May we
encounter you in our prayer life, not bowed down on our face in fear and
trembling, and not formally as we would give honor to a ruler, but rather in a
joyful embrace of a parent and child. May we learn to accept your love and open
our hearts to you so that our prayer life becomes our special time of
connectedness with you.
Anonymous submittal
Thursday,
March 30, 2006
Psalm 102:17
He will respond to the prayer of the
destitute; he will not despise their plea.
“Because God is
living, eternal and unchanging, we can trust him to help his people in this
generation just as he helped his people in past generations.” – Life
Application Bible
In a time when
our country is facing the aftershocks of a national disaster and the ongoing
tribulations of war, we find ourselves calling “Hear our prayer, O Lord.” The
Katrina catastrophe, which affected thousands of lives in
In this verse,
who is the author referring to as “the destitute?” We may immediately suspect
those less fortunate…the poor, the sick, the underserved. However, I interpret it as much more. “The
destitute” for me represents mankind. People are struggling with their own
disasters – poverty, illness, depression, and addiction; or a failing career,
or marriage – and we are calling out to Him. But, we must have faith that our
pleas are heard. We must trust that He is as close to our hearts as He was to
past generations. He will respond to our
prayer.
The response may
be a friend, a blessing of patience; or a new opportunity. I fully believe that
if we put our faith in God, and pray from the heart, He will not despise our
plea. He will respond to our prayer.
It may not be
the answer we expected; or it may not have come when we expected it; but it
will come. For God is living, eternal and unchanging – and we can trust Him to
help his people. Amen.
Dear God, hear our prayer. Teach us to have
faith in you, and to reach up and out to you in prayer. Open our ears and our
hearts to your response -- to save us, renew us and revitalize us. Amen.
Holly Trimbur
Friday,
March 31, 2006
Matthew 5:43-44
You have heard that it was said, ‘You
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
This passage is
the concluding section of the sayings of Jesus that began in Matthew 5:21. Jesus
calls for a higher righteousness than even that which the most religious Jewish
leaders would practice. There are six parallel sayings beginning with, “You
have heard it said of old”, “But I say to you”. A new level of conduct is
called for in relations to killing, adultery, divorce, swearing, revenge and
finally, love for enemy. The section concludes with the challenge to “be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.
The disciples
were challenged as we are challenged to live our lives according to standards
that are set very high. Some disciples might have thought it impossible to be
perfect, even as we might think today.
How can we love
our enemy who seeks to do us harm. The dictionary definition of enemy is one
who is hostile toward another and seeks to do harm. The usual love ethic would
have us not be enemies ourselves to others, but this challenge of Jesus is to
love even those who would hate and despise us.
Our daily
newspapers are filled with examples of enemies and hatred. Our national leaders
even speak of evil empires and leaders of other nations see our nation as the
enemy. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave us a contemporary example of how we can
consider the practice of racism as evil but seek to love and pray for those
persons who harbor racism in their hearts.
Carl Michaelson,
a former theology professor at Drew Seminary said “we must identify the
aggressor and throw all our power against him, not to annihilate him but to
annihilate his injustice, to neutralize those forces of aggressive injustice
while still loving the aggressor.” (The Witness of Radical Faith, p.107)
Similarly Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, a German theologian hanged by the Nazi’s in 1945, reflects on this
higher righteousness. The hallmark of the Christian is to be “extraordinary”. It
is for us to have an unreserved love for our enemies- a love that we saw
fulfilled on the cross. “If we make the extraordinary our standard, we shall be
led into the passion of Christ…in it the disciple endures the suffering of
Christ.” (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 132-3)
This Lenten
season calls for us to look beyond the ordinary ethical norms we practice and
ask ourselves, individually and in community, how we measure up to the
extraordinary calling of Christ’s passion in our lives.
Help us, O God, move to higher standards
in living our lives, even as we seek to love our enemies. Amen.
Paul
Schrading
Saturday, April 1, 2006
Romans
8:26-27
Also the Spirit
helps us because we are weak. We do not know how we should talk to God. But the
Spirit himself talks to God for us, while we cry and cannot say any words. God
looks to see what is in people's hearts. And he knows what the Spirit is going
to do. The Spirit talks to God for God's people. And he asks for them what God
wants them to have.
I
have been blessed to have a number of intense experiences of knowing God’s
Spirit in such a way that I can have no doubt of God’s existence and I can have
no doubt of God’s unfathomable love for me and all creation. This is the anchor
for my faith in hard times, when I am in the desert and tempted to feel
loneliness and despair.. These are the times when I can’t bring myself to pray
or to be mindful of God’s love, but the Spirit is doing this for me – helping
me in my weakness.
These
powerful experiences started for me when my parents dragged me to a healing
service as a teenager. People were being blessed and they would fall down. It
was not very dramatic and the priest doing this was very unassuming. I went up
very skeptical and very defiant, but the second he placed his hand on my
forehead and made the sign of the cross and mumbled a short prayer, I keeled
over in the arms of the men waiting to catch me. It was bliss. I was
semi-conscious but unable to move for a while. I felt wrapped in the arms of love.
Despite all my inner conflict that I was experiencing as a gay teenager, I knew
beyond doubt that I was loved and that this God I had learned about all my life
was real and alive and in relationship to me in a very powerful and intimate
way.
I
had a few similar experiences later, but the most powerful one was at a retreat
I coordinated in college. I was not aware that the priest leading this retreat,
a stranger to me prior to that time, was going to have a healing service. To
make a long story short, during this service he told me that he felt that I
myself had the gift of healing. I had another very powerful experience of the
Spirit in that moment that seemed to confirm this for me. I felt empowered and
alive in a way I never had before.
Months
later, at a gathering of lay Franciscans at my college, some people were
praying over a woman with cancer. I could not reach her, so I put my hand on
the shoulder of a woman who was touching her. As I was praying, I could feel
energy rushing through my body from above me and through my hand into this
woman. She turned to me in alarm saying my hand was burning her. I had a sense
of peace, though, and told her not to worry. After our prayer, the woman I
touched started jumping up and down. People looked at her funny until she
started exclaiming that she had had a bone spur and was unable to walk without
pain and that now it was gone. And she pointed at me and said “he did it – he
healed me.”
Boy
did I feel uncomfortable. Everyone was looking at me. I just said it wasn’t me,
it was God, and tried to shrink away as fast as I could. I have told very few
people this story since and I have basically been hiding this gift and feeling
a lot of guilt about that. I told this to a new friend recently and I got a
powerful reply from him, which seemed to be from beyond him, that I could not
hide this any more. So I am coming out with this story here so I can’t hide
anymore.
I
believe in the healing power of God’s love. I believe that God’s Spirit working
in and through us can cause miracles to happen. I celebrate and embrace the
reality that God working through us can do infinitely more than we can ask or
imagine, no matter how weak or cowardly we are. I am special, but no more so
than any other child of God. The Spirit works in and through each of us in
small ways and in powerful ways. I, and all of us, need to be open to the
Spirit working in our lives. What is the Spirit up to in your life?
Good and loving
God, thank you for the many gifts you bestow on each of us through your Spirit.
Thank you for being the source of our being, the spark of our soul, the warmth
in our heart, the peace in our breath. May we celebrate your powerful and
intimate love for us and may we always be courageously open to your grace and
your gifts in our lives. Amen.
Ammon
Ripple
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Psalm 51: 1-17
A
Prayer for Forgiveness
Be
merciful to me, O God,
because
of your constant love.
Because
of your great mercy
wipe
away my sins!
Wash
away all my evil
and
make me clean from my sin!
I
recognize my faults;
I
am always conscious of my sins
I
have sinned against you – only against you
and
have done what you consider evil.
So
you are right in judging me;
you
are justified in condemning me.
I
have been evil form the time I was born;
from
the day of my birth I have been sinful.
Sincerity
and truth are what you require;
fill
my mine with your wisdom
Remove
my sin, and I will be clean;
wash
me, and I will be whiter than snow
Let
me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;
and
though you have crushed me and broken me,
I will be happy once again.
Close
your eyes to my sins
and
wipe out all my evil.
Create
a pure heart in me, O God
and
put a new and loyal spirit in me.
Do
not banish me from your presence;
do
not take you holy spirit away from me.
Give
me again the joy that comes from your salvation,
and
make me willing to obey you.
Then
I will teach sinners your commands,
and
they will turn back to you.
Spare
my life, O God, and save me,
and
I will gladly proclaim your righteousness.
Help
me to speak, Lord,
and
I will praise you.
You
do not want sacrifices, or I would not offer them;
you are not pleased with burnt offerings.
My
sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;
you will not reject a humble and
repentant heart.
Tracy Merrick