Being Thankful

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17 

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Philippians 4:6

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2

A Willingness to Serve

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6

Years ago, when I was a young mom of three small children, I worked part time as a foundation director at our small-town hospital but mostly considered myself a stay-at-home mom.

My husband was serving on the staff-parish relations committee at our church and encouraged me to apply for the children’s ministry position that was becoming available. This encouragement prompted a long-time career in serving churches, both as a children’s ministry coordinator and now as an office manager at Eastridge. My time spent working in churches over 25 years has been very rewarding!

I thought of this as I read a devotion in The Upper Room. The author chose to focus on church volunteers, but I thought of my own years of service, both as an employee AND as a volunteer serving on committees and in other ways.

The Upper Room author says that she had no skills to speak of and didn’t know how she would serve in her church. She prayed, asking God how she could be of service. She did find a role to play, but the point she was making is this, from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.” It’s the differences in all of us that make the church work as it should.

Prayer: Dear Lord, show me ways that I can be of service in my church. Help me to look beyond what may be a role that requires a special talent to ways that are needed and may be overlooked. Guide us to serving you and your people. Amen.

Donna Gustafson

A Spiritual Cornucopia

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. John 15: 4-5

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peach, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23

…and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if all these things be in you, and abound, thy make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

During the Thanksgiving season the cornucopia filled with fruit and grain is used as a decoration to symbolize the abundance of the harvest. The colorful fruit and bundles of grain spilling out of the horn of plenty” make us mindful of the blessings that we received and remind us to be ever thankful for them.

Consider the scripture selections for today it the context of a spiritual cornucopia. John 15:4, 5 starts us at the pointed end of the cornucopia. Jesus tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches and teaches that when we abide in him and he abides in us much fruit will be brought forth. He also instructs us that we can do nothing without him. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians qualities that constitute the fruit of the Spirit are named. This “fruit” fills the body of the cornucopia. If we want the fruit to grow, we must abide in Jesus and strive to live lives that imitate him. With the selection from 2 Peter 1:5-8 we have reached the large circular opening of the cornucopia and the contents are flowing from it. Peter instructs us to put our faith in action and to develop the character qualities which will help us to live fruitful life of love and serve to God and man. Are we abiding in Christ so the fruit of the Spirit will grow? Are we helping the cornucopia to overflow abundantly by placing our faith in action?

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ.  Empower and enable us to grow in the fruit of the Spirit and to share these qualities by our actions so others may also live the abundant life. Amen

Gail Keown (reprinted from 2008)

Rain

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone. Zechariah 10:1

May he be like rain falling on a mown field; like showers watering the earth. Psalms 72:6

There is such delight in being able to listen to a gentle rain, with only faint grumbles of thunder. The sound of drops pattering on horizontal surfaces and trickling down vertical ones is like a soothing lullaby. Seeing the mistiness making lights waver and bright spring greens shimmer is like enjoying a moving work of art, shifting in the changing cloud light. Birds send out their most joyful songs and seem to chuckle softly to themselves. Puddles reflect the white sky and seem to boil with bubbles as drops bounce into them. The freshness of the air and the smells of the wet earth make everything feel clean and rinsed of dusty weariness.  Spring's growth is nourished just as the soul's thirst for comfort and healing is tended. Memories of other times and places in this hypnotic kind of soft rainfall arise and pull this moment into a thread of continuity.  

Rain has many associations for Christians; in the Bible - and in agricultural states like the one where I live - rain is an important part of the planting and growing seasons. Crops and livestock depend on adequate rain, and ultimately everyone's food supply is tied to it. God provides all this, and it is a testament of his care when the rain falls; it is a gift that feeds all people. 

The rain can be threatening, and floods are a fearful event in Biblical lore. Rain is sometimes symbolic of God's righteousness showering down on the earth.  

But the beneficial rain is inclusive; it falls on everyone and everything. If we choose to shower blessings like this, we share them without exception to all within reach. God is in the water that baptizes us, the water that cleans us and everything we use and touch and see, the water that is a habitat for countless amazing beings, the water that nourishes our food and the trees and plants that give us shade and joy.

The rain I am enjoying at this moment is one of the ways I can experience God's peace that surpasses understanding. This same rain is making someone else feel soggy and chilled, so I have to hope that somehow God's comfort is felt by that person in some way as well. I often work in the evenings, and I am fortunate enough to be home by an open door for this rainfall. Someone else who planned an outdoor event for this evening has had to make a change in plans and isn't feeling as fortunate.  

There is a Jewish prayer recited at the start of the rainy season in Israel. This is an excerpt.  

May He send rain from the heavenly towers,

To soften the earth with its crystal showers.

You have named water the symbol of Your might,

All that breathes life in its drops to delight. 

O revive those who praise Your powers of rain....

For you are God, who causes the wind to blow 

and the rain to fall; 

for a blessing and not for a curse - Amen!

For life, and not for death - Amen!

For plenty, and not for scarcity - Amen!

Mollie Manner (reprinted from 2018)  

Why Go to Church?

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10: 23-25  

“If going to church makes you a Christian, does going to the garage make you a car?”  I recently saw this question on a vehicle’s bumper sticker and found it intriguing to consider what kind of person was asking this nonsensical question.  Is he a “nonbeliever” with animosity toward Christians for some reason?  Could he be a “believer” who attends worship services regularly but questions the sincerity of the others who occupy the pews around him?  Could he be a “believer” who thinks his personal relationship with Christ is adequate and attending church is unnecessary? 

No, going to church does not make me a Christian. It is my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior that makes me a Christian. But attending worship services at church on Sundays makes me a better Christian…and I don’t mean better than other Christians. I mean that it makes me a better follower of Christ than I would be without the encouragement and support of others in my congregation.

Prayer: Father God, you have provided an awesome plan for the spiritual nourishment of Your people through the church. Thank You for the privilege of coming near to You through church attendance and fellowship with others who believe in You and Your Son.

Judith Keller (reprinted from July 2011)

An Election Day Prayer

A prayer for Election Day

Holy God, we come to you today in prayer, full of emotions. Election seasons always seem to bring that out in us - worry and hope, fear and frustration. The list could go on. So today we bow our heads and ask for guidance, open our ears to hear the groans of creation. Open our eyes to see the needs of others. Open our hearts to make room for empathy. Give us the wisdom to navigate challenging conversations. Give us the compassion to make decisions for the greater good. And when all else fails, bring us back to love. Bring our hearts and our hands, our dreams and our hopes, our anger and our frustration, our hurt and our fear all back to love. With hope we pray, with hope we are sustained. Amen. 

reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art

Listening

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 1:22

When I first heard the story of Joan of Arc in my childhood, I wondered what God's voice must have sounded like to her. It was frightening to think of hearing something that no one else could hear. It was daunting to think that the voice would tell me things that would be hard for me to accept. I wondered why she was chosen for all this.
 
I have a friend whose daughter was having unusual vision issues when she was little. Because I was familiar with things my own daughter's neurologist examined for, I asked her about what she was seeing while I was visiting her and her mother. She matter-factly described the images of what she saw, and the filters through which she sometimes perceived the world. There were voices as well. She seemed unabashedly healthy and comfortable with all this. Her doctor found nothing wrong with her either. When I brought this up with other friends, some of them mentioned remembering hearing voices when they were little. Some of them had known children who could draw auras they saw emitting from people. Like the ability to hear the sleigh bell in the book The Polar Express, this sense disappeared with maturation. 

I don't understand all this, but I know that children are often the ones who see and hear things acutely, and I wonder if it has to do with their openness and being in active learning mode. Selecting and editing that to which they choose to give attention is not yet a habit. 

Listening is a true skill, and we live in an age where communication output is highly encouraged. We are known by the extent of our Facebook posts. We have the first President in history who communicates by Twitter instead of fireside chats. The tower of babel is an ongoing environment for us. We receive emails daily to which we are expected to respond.  
 
When I truly listen, I am changed inside. Listening requires focus. It needs space and time. Lately I have preferred to have physical meetings in order to listen to the people closest to me. There is much to hear in the tone of voice, the placement of silence, the look on the face. When I am really listening, I am able to help the other person by relating something interesting about what I have heard, or to ask a question that takes the discussion below the surface. It is not about taking on burdens or jumping to solutions, both of which might stall the process. I am simply learning something. I am offering up the best of what I am and what I have to the effort.
 
In a recent move, I had to purge a loveseat that had moved with me every place I had lived with my children. It was difficult to let this piece of outmoded furniture go, because so many moments of their growth had happened while we sat, side by side, trying to get over life's hurdles, whether they were toddler tears or emotional adolescent conundrums. That loveseat was a good listener, and a comforting springboard to the next step. Similarly, every car I have driven has become an ally, not only in road trips and adventure, but also in providing that comforting environment for listening when it is hard for the person talking to have forced eye contact. I had a friend who was frustrated that she was too busy to have her normal daily prayer time, and she said she simply told God "Come on in the car, you're gonna have to go with me today".  There is always something fortifying about the idea of having your friends by your side. It is offering support while looking in the same direction.
 
During the Taize services I used to play and sing for, there was always a central time of meditation, about ten minutes long, during which I would play something to help slow the body into a receptive state, and then sit in silence.  Sometimes I would find that during this time I could have the luxury of a complete thought, and realized how much it was missing from my regimen of interruptions.  At other times, I filled it with unhurried prayer, unlike the frantic tweet-like prayers I often blurt throughout the day. But eventually I simply listened: to God, and in some cases, to the silent prayers of those in the room.  I tried to simply sit with those around me, witnessing their thoughts and inviting God's word to be felt. It was a vital state of being that I hadn't found in a lot of worship experiences.

I am a pianist working with students who are performing songs or musical theatre pieces, I usually try to tell them what I heard and saw from their presentations. In this way, we can work at getting closer to what their intent is.  We work together to make the artistic expression authentic. It helps to make both of us aware of many things, and we both explore and learn together.  

My indelible faith experience from my childhood came when I was 6 or 7, spending a sleepless night because of my active little brain. I was pondering how the world might end, and my fear was eating me up. Finally, I prayed in utter anguish to God about how scared I was. I must have actually listened to God then; I felt a blanket of peace covering me, and I lay back and simply rested in God's cradling for the rest of the night. 
 
Prayer: Listening God, you hear every word I stumble over and every speech I deliver. Beyond that, you hear my heart beating and my soul searching. Among and above the great sounds and music of your creation, let me hear your voice for all and your words for me alone. Help my inner ears to listen and hear, to learn and to digest, to understand. Amen.

  
Mollie Manner (reprinted from 2018)