Piloting Faith: Good reminders...
A Word for the Day...
Probably like you, I've been stressed out lately. This morning a friend sent me a text that said:
Today:
Drink your coffee
Stay focused and positive
Don't freak out
Remember, stabbing people is wrong!
Are you wearing pants?
I laughed, but this is only funny because I need to have these reminders.
We are living through times of breakdown and breakthrough. It's disorienting and confusing. An old-world ordered by continuity, uniformity, and repeatability is dying away, and a new world, ordered by discontinuity, simultaneity, and multiple associations, is emerging. We must harness the capacity to live in between them, to bridge the span between what was and can be.
How do we do this? Sociologist Margaret Wheatly says in her book, Turning to One Another:
"Sacred experiences give us what we need to live in this strange yet wondrous time. We need as many sacred moments as we can find. We invite these moments when we open to life and to each other. In those grace-filled moments of greeting, we know we're part of all this, and that it's all right."
Maybe she's pointing to the real crisis. We are all stressed. But we are also lonely. Perhaps we need to be reminded that God made us for each other. We are only fully human and healthy when we are in community with others. Or, as my chosen grandfather often puts it, "Life is about relationships, and the quality of our lives depends upon the quality of our relationships."
Today, I hope you seek out connections with friends, family and colleagues, and celebrate those as God's gift in stressful times. We are all in this together.
- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight
Prayer for the Week
As streets fill with shoppers
Bright lights and tempting offers
Christmas songs and children’s laughter
You lead us along a different path
To a desert river and a Prophetic voice
A call to repentance
A call to service
A call to immerse ourselves
In living water that will never run dry
A call to prepare a way in our own lives
For the Savior of the world to enter in
To know the touch of tender mercy
And rest in your forgiving love.
Amen.
