Day Two: Forty Days of Gratitude

I am thankful this day for:

     - The work of Rita and Glenn Chapman in the Congo, who put their own safety behind their love 

        and faith and service.

           -  For faithful people who still believe that churches are important and work tirelessly to support 

              the work of spreading the good news of Jesus and his love.

           -  For children who test the limits.

           -  For the grappling we all have to do trying to make our actions match what we say we believe.

           -  For challenging times that make us re-examine what is truly important.

           -  For the Congregation of First Baptist Church a community seeking new ways to make a 

              difference.

           -  For a good husband.

           -  For running water and flush toilets …we take so many things forgranted.

           -  For wonderful Assistants who care and take their work seriously.

           -  For the opportunity to spend forty days giving THANKS.

LET ME HEAR FROM YOU, WHAT ARE YOU THANKING GOD FOR.

SEND ME NOTES!

Esther.

I have been thinking about Esther some more and the word that comes to my mind most powerfully is courage. Her courage is even hard to get your mind around. I want to say, “Wow Esther, how did you actually deal with your fear?” I wonder what she would tell us? Was it faith in God through fasting and prayer? Was it just that she knew either way it was life or death? Did her friendship with the other women with whom she lived give her the strength? I wondered this week if the other women figured out she was a Jew? Did they keep her secret for her? How did she actually feel about the King?

Is that kind of courage a gift from God only certain people are given? Can you get more courage? Can you grow courage? Would we have more courage if we fasted? Prayed together more? IF we desire more courage do we ask for it or do we gain courage by practicing facing our fears?

I would love to have a coffee sit-down with Esther. I would want to hear from her how her life prepared her for “such a time as this”. I would ask her how her women friends helped. I would ask her how she felt afterward. Maybe someday I will actually get to have a conversation with her. Regardless, I give thanks for her, for her life and courage and faith. She reminds me a lot of Mary. Both of them risk their position and their lives for something outside of themselves. Really in a sense they risk everything for us too. It humbles me. Good stories to ponder as we begin advent.

Pay Attention.

I was driving to work this morning through the back streets of our little village, paying attention to my surroundings. I have been working on that…paying attention. Usually I am in my head checking off my to-do list or writing my sermon, or thinking of people I need to visit, my grocery list….but today I was concentrating on paying attention.

I realized how many businesses had come and gone since we moved here from Michigan. I saw new buildings and space where old buildings once stood, I noticed new paint and new signs and new roads. Even my driving habits are different, what roads I take more often, where I go. There are new people in my life too, people whose lives are now intertwined with mine. And people I miss who are no longer in my everyday-circle.

I was struck by how much life changes all the time. We age, we move and our work changes, our friends change, our children grow. It is hard sometimes to deal with these changes but they are universal to the human experience. Everything changes, always.

I have also been thinking a lot about our story from last Sunday about Abigail. What a remarkable women she was. She was intelligent, wise and humble. Her faithfulness to her community, her God and to those within her family, was pretty astounding given her life circumstances. Talk about change, Abigail’s life took a 180 degree turn, virtually everything changed. Easy for us to say, “Well, it was for the good.” Even good change is often very difficult. Wonder how it was for her to save her people, lose her husband, become David’s wife?

I love the stories of the Old Testament, how human they are, how dramatic they are, how like us they were, how like them, we are. I love that for thousands of years we have been learning from them. I am reminded how important it is to pay attention.

David and Goliath

Sunday our story was about David and Goliath. Coming to this story as an adult was a different experience for me. As I stated in my sermon, the gore, the beheading was hard to read. We talked about how this story could possibly be relevant for us today and the feedback I have gotten since Sunday is interesting and thoughtful. I wanted to share some of our member reflections.

Sometimes we are the ones feeding the “giant” or “giants” in our life. When we place high expectations of perfection on ourselves often we feed the giant. And when we are perfectionists with ourselves, it often translates into expecting perfectionism from others. We place the bar so high that those around us can never reach it. It is a set up for us and for them.

How about when we feed the “giant” by negative self-talk. We repeat to ourselves the litany of mistakes or failures and it becomes cyclical. The more we bad-mouth ourselves, the harder it is try or care or believe in ourselves and we give over all power to the “giant”. “Of course I can’t win” we say to ourselves and we are done before we even try. Stop the feeding of the giant with negative self-talk. Forgiveness is found in our living, loving God and we are offered Grace each day to begin again. Every morning is a new morning to offer our lives to God.

I was reminded by one member that “giants” come in all sizes. That made me laugh. It is true. Giants, those things that trip up us or make us stop trusting ourselves and God, those things that tempt us, those things come in big packages yes, but often in little packages as well. They are so troubling, or so tempting or so painful that their size takes on enormous proportion. The problem or issue become bigger and bigger, like procrastination. May start really small, but by the time we get help to deal with it, it has grown beyond our wildest imaginations.

Remember David, had to shuck all the conventional armor, go with the sling shot which had worked for him the past and concentrate on having a good aim. He mentioned that he did all of this in the service of, and in the strength of, the living God. We too are promised help and strength and love by our Living God and perhaps we need to sometimes shuck all the “conventional armor”; unsolicited advice, negative self-talk, negative feedback, the nay-saying crowd, and just go forward with our best gifts, trusting God and trusting ourselves. There is so much hope in this story. I hope it feeds you some more this week and that is gives you strength while you are out there on the mission field of our world, slaying the giants.

If you feel led to read ahead, this coming Sunday we will be reflecting on the story of Abigail and David in I Samuel 25, great story of a courageous woman.

Power Equal To Our Tasks

While visiting friends in New Jersey, my friend, Pastor Mike showed me a book of prayer that had been given to his grandmother. I loved the inscription and gently started turning the pages of this lovely book on prayer. In the forward I found this quote:

“Oh do not pray for easy lives.” Phillip Brooks said once. “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work will be no miracle; but you will be the miracle. And every day you will wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.”

From Your Prayers and Mine, Compiled by Elizabeth Yates, 1954

This week every time I read one of the headlines about stocks falling and our economy and the mess we have made of everything politic, I thought of this quote. We are living in difficult and confusing times and we are making it worse by finger-pointing and shouting at one another. The divisive and angry tone of our culture has created such division in our country, it is very unsettling.

Really, the last three nights it has been hard to go to sleep. My stomach tells me that I am worrying when I should be trusting. I am not speaking here of a trust that thinks God is going to make it all better or easier but a trusting that believes prayer can make a difference and creativity and hard work are still needed and righteousness matters. I am talking about the kind of prayer that knows that change begins with me and I need to monitor my attitudes and my words. I am talking about the kind of trust that believes that God will give us what we need, not always what we want and that it will come when God believes it is the right time. The kind of trust that still nourishes hope when the sun hasn’t yet come out but faith shines a light.

This is what we are called to. I hope we have the will to follow. I pray we do. I am praying that we have the power equal to our tasks. Praying for the power of the Holy Spirit equal to our calling to love, to work things out with cooperation, to serve those that need it most, remembering that we must love justice, act kindly and walk in humilility before our God.