Piloting Faith: Wisdom from a 99 year old...
A Word for the Day...
My mother-in-law celebrated her 99th birthday yesterday. She lives with us, so we welcomed into our home people from various eras of her life stopping by to wish her a happy birthday and celebrate a long and well-lived life. Its been a beautiful day for her and for us.
I asked her today, "What advice would you give to a 20-year-old, as one who has lived 99 years."
She immediately responded, "Don't take life so seriously. Everything works out." For most of, but not all of us, that's true.
Her response reminded me of Matthew 6:25-34 when Jesus says:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today."
Today, let's not worry. Let's not take life so seriously. Let's not think EVERYTHING is depending on us. Let's see what happens.
- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight
Blessing for the Week
Blessed are we: the chalice-lighters of resistance, justice, love, and faith.
Blessed are we: the heretics, the outcasts, the walkers of our own way.
Blessed are we: the border-crossers, the refugees, the immigrants, the poor, the wanders who are not lost.
Blessed are we: the transgressors, the trespassers, the passers-by, the cause-takers, the defiant, the compliant.
Blessed are we: the hand-extenders, the sign-makers, the protestors, the protectors.
Blessed are we: the trans women, the trans men, the non-binary, the cisgender, the multigender, the no gender.
Blessed are we: the friend, the stranger, the lonely, the hidden, the visible, the authentic.
Blessed are we who rise in solidarity, blessed are we who cannot, blessed are we who do not.
Blessed are we for this is our Beloved Community, and this is who we are.
