Be Still

As summer draws to a close we look back with gratitude; for campers returning from rainbow trail with a renewed energy towards grace. For all those volunteers and donations for what was another amazing year at Day Camp, showing the love of Christ to the least of these. Another backpacking trip where there was hail, campfires, laughter, and just a touch of hairy potter. Finally a summer that was an amazing example of the power my congregation has to be a beacon in our community.

As I look towards fall I am both excited and exhausted. Excited for the conversations, the youth groups, the events, and just the time I get to spend doing ministry in this amazing church. Yet I am exhausted from a slowing pace after a very full summer. So the question is how to I recenter on ministry when I am still just trying to catch my breath?

Psalm 46:10

Be Still and know that I am God

Be Still and Know that I am

Be Still and Know

Be Still

I moments that we look to the future, the horizon, even the next task at work or school we have next on our plate. So this fall I am challenging myself and the rest of our congregation to look at our feet for just a moment. To take a deep breath and be ok with the idea that God’s call for us in some of these moments is to Be STILL. Not run head first into the next adventure but to take a grateful heart to a place of stillness and reflection.

Taking an evening with the family to schedule a dinner where there isn’t a phone, tv, radio, or distraction and laugh together, talk together, and just be together. These moments will help us understand God’s call for us to be still.

As most of you know I am a huge nerd and my nerdiness has a strong foundation of T.V. shows, cartoons, music, and yes movies. The most influential of all being Star Wars. For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a Jedi, the greatest of which was Yoda. When he first meets luke, all Luke wants is to go “meet master Yoda now”. Yoda has to tell Luke 3 times he needs patients. It was at this moment that Yoda say’s “I cannot teach him he has no patients”.  He pokes Luke in the chest and says “All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was... what he was doing. Adventure HUH! Excitement HUH! A Jedi craves not these things”

So my challenge as we creep towards Halloween is that we as a congregation can look at our feet. Put our minds on where we are and what we are doing. We plan to our next great adventure, we prepare for the excitement of advent. Let us take this time to breath, talk of this moment, and

Be Still

The Well That Can't Run Dry

Recently we have been talking so much about stewardship and our call to serve both the church and our greater community. I found myself wrestling with the idea of “grace freely given” because of the conversations. The idea, that God’s love and Grace flows from an endless well, that we will never be able to give enough back to or be grateful enough for this gift. Yet God does call us to lives of action, not a demand, but a call. When we answer this call it is usually started with excitement at the possibilities of what we can do for God. Yet about half way through our hard work and grit we find ourselves finding things to complain about. If it is a mission trip, we grumble about the heat or dispersion of the work load. If it is a fund raiser we find that the clean up and energy expelled yielded less than we anticipated in giving. If it is encouraging our congregation to find how our new congregation worships, we grumble about how we miss what the old congregation used to do.

I find myself wrestling with the church we are, the church we want to be, and the church God is actually calling us to. I don’t think any of these 3 places are the same place. Not by active struggle, nor the desire to make Holy Spirit into something it’s not. No, the struggle I see is that we are stuck in the middle of our mission. We have fought as a congregation to become better than we were and now that we have been on this journey for a while, the grumbling might start as we push to go further.

So why would this push make me think about “grace freely given” and the “well that does not run dry”? Simple, what happens when the work that has been put forth puts us into a place where we finally feel like we don’t need to thirst for a little while? When we don’t think we need the well? Right now we are comfortable with worship, we are safe in giving, we have enough service to put a check in the box of work. If we push for more that means we will become thirsty once again, and isn’t it nice not to thirst, even for a moment.

A pause is nice, refreshing, and needed but it is not what we as the body of Christ are called to be in the world. Romans reminded me what we are:

12: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 

11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are a living sacrifice, not a part time nor convenient sacrifice. Be a living sacrifice! Give when you have little to give, serve when you have been worn weary, and through it all find joy, hope, patients, and faithfulness in prayer. Giving thanks to the one who gives you and this congregation strength to be living gifts to God.

It’s like most of our parents taught us, “If it were easy, everybody would do it”.

But can we? Can you?