A Pure Heart

“For God examines every heart and sees through every motive.” – 1 Chronicles 28:9 (The Message)

What do you think God finds when examining your heart? Are there places you are afraid for God to find? Are there motives that God will love? How do you know?

I once found this story.
Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the roadsides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman?"
The elder monk answered "Yes, brother".
Then the younger monk asked again, "But then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside?"
The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her."

One monk dwelled on that which is considered good, while the other monk decided to do good. I wonder if that is what it means to say that God sees through every motive. Sometimes we worry so much about what others think we fail to meet the need right in front of us. However while we may have saved face in the eyes of the world, what were we then in God’s eyes? Perhaps it is time for us to pray that God gives us the wisdom to do that which keeps our motives pure in those mighty eyes.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

What Child Is This

But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5 (NRSV)

In Isaiah’s poem about the suffering servant Christians see images of Jesus the Christ. As we celebrate Christmas, do you celebrate the reason Jesus came? What was the reason Jesus arrived? What is it about this baby that you believe is a gift?

I once heard a story about a boy who stole comics from a library. His father found out what he did and together they went to the library, gave them back, and the father forced his son to apologize. On the way home the boy got a stern lecture.
That summer when they were on vacation the boy stole comics again, this time from a store. When the arrived home the father found them, confronted his son, and this time burned them in their fireplace. As the fire burned he gave his son a stern lecture.
A couple of months after that the boy stole comic books from a bookstore. This time the father said, “I am going to have to spank you because you keep doing this.” However the father didn’t want to hurt his son and after spanking him he told the boy to wait there for a lecture and think about what he did. The father went outside the room and closed the door. Loud enough for the boy to hear the father started crying. Not wanting his son to see him like that he went and washed up before he went in to lecture the boy.
Years later the boy’s mother recalled that the boy stole comic books and asked him if he stopped because his father had spanked him. “No,” he said, “I stopped because I heard dad crying after he left the room.”

The lesson the boy learned wasn’t in punishment, but in the realization that he hurt his father. Even at Christmas when we see that little baby, there is in his eyes the whole pain of the world that he will take. It is easy for us to just see a baby, but if that’s all we see we are no better than the Innkeeper who had no idea what was going on just outside his Inn. When we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating that God was willing to cry out loud instead of punish, and to be hurt instead of inflict pain. There is a lesson we can learn here, let us pray that we learn it.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Made in God's Nature

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." 
God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. 
He created them male and female. – Genesis 1:26-27 (The Message)

What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What is God’s nature like? What then should our nature be like? What all are we responsible for?

This is a story I have heard before.
Word spread across the countryside about the wise Holy Man who lived in a small house atop the mountain. A man from the village decided to make the long and difficult journey to visit him. When he arrived at the house, he saw an old servant inside who greeted him at the door. "I would like to see the wise Holy Man," he said to the servant. The servant smiled and led him inside. As they walked through the house, the man from the village looked eagerly around the house, anticipating his encounter with the Holy Man. Before he knew it, he had been led to the back door and escorted outside. He stopped and turned to the servant, "But I want to see the Holy Man!"
"You already have," said the old man. "Everyone you may meet in life, even if they appear plain and insignificant... see each of them as a wise Holy Man. If you do this, then whatever problem you brought here today will be solved."

While I don’t know that all our problems will be solved if we saw each other as wise holy people, it might help. God is wise and holy, and God makes us in that image and in that nature. Even if we aren’t quite wise and holy as is, somewhere such things exist within us. The Talmud says, “From beginning to end God’s law teaches kindness.” Maybe it is in kindness we can begin to see each other as wise holy people, to see ourselves as wise holy people. And maybe in seeing that God will come and make sure that what we see is so.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from December Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Advent is the beginning of a new church year. It generally starts right after Thanksgiving. So while the world awaits a new year in January, here we sit as the church already immersed in a new year, and I think it is good we remember that. It is also good we remember that our new year always starts us off in the spirit of preparation.
Somewhere the winds of the ages carry the sound of a lone voice in the wilderness which proclaimed, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” We have heard this voice before, we have heard this shout before. It comes back to us every Advent as surely as the colder weather of the winter months. It comes back to us because for some reason or another we seem to need to hear it again.
From one year to the next so much of life changes. I looked at pictures of myself from when I first arrived to Georgia three years ago. I look older now, because three years is three years even if three years isn’t that long. As I think of what the three years has brought with it there appears a constant stream of change. New friends and family have been found. Some friends and family have been lost to the sands of time that will eventually take us all. I have a child now, he just turned two.
A year passes by, and we wonder how it went by so quickly, yet as we examine that year we also wonder how so much happened, how so much occurred and so much changed. At some point last year we considered why we were preparing our hearts for Jesus again. “Haven’t I already done this?” many of us thought in some form or another. And while the answer is, “Yes, I have already done this,” perhaps we do it again because we need to.
In this last year, as life changed, as people entered our lives and people left, as we grew a little older, and hopefully just a bit wiser, we get to a point where we realize we are not quite the same people we were last year. Our experiences mold us, if ever so slightly, so we become someone different even as we are the same. So then we get to Advent and that voice from the Baptizer hits our ears again. Those familiar scriptures are read aloud again. The candles are lit in order again.
And we sit where we sat the year before needing to have Jesus again, because the truth is sometimes a year takes us back into the wilderness. Perhaps our wilderness is grief. Hospital rooms are wildernesses for many. Then again maybe it is unemployment, or psychological torment, or just something as simple as monotony. Maybe our days all mesh together and there is nothing about us that feels special or unique at all, that’s a wilderness for sure. So we sit in our little wildernesses and John’s voice is heard again, and wouldn’t you know it? We need to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus again because we need Jesus again.
Perhaps people come to church more during this time of year because somewhere deep inside of each of us is that hope that we will receive Jesus again. That life, if but for a moment, will be peaceful, hopeful, and have a bit of joy in the midst of our wildernesses. Well at least I hope that is what we will all receive, because God knows we can all use a little bit of that. And maybe that is why the church begins her year a little earlier than the rest of the world, where Christmas is toward the beginning as opposed to at the end. It is a good way to start. So let us come together once more in the spirit of preparation, hoping that we will receive Jesus once more, and thereby start another year that will change us as best we can.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

What Will We Give?

“But me—who am I, and who are these my people, that we should presume to be giving something to you? Everything comes from you; all we're doing is giving back what we've been given from your generous hand.” – 1 Chronicles 29:14 (The Message)

What has God given you? King David spoke these words do they still ring true? Who are we that we should presume to give something to God? What have you given back to God? What will you give back?

On Monday I went to visit with a family. It was a good visit. We shared family stories, we caught up, we laughed, it was nice. At one point someone broke in, “Hey Garrett, I think I really have to tell you this, I think God wants me to tell you this.”
“Alright,” I responded.
“I am going to be talking to teens about stewardship and that they can give their time if they have nothing else.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Well you know that time can mean as an acronym? It can mean Things Individuals Might Experience. When we give our time others might experience things they wouldn’t otherwise.” The man went on to tell me of a time when he was in his early 20s and went to visit his grandmother for a week. And together they made a quilt. It was something his grandmother loved to do, and it was a special time she cherished with her grandson. Many years later his grandmother has passed away, but it is something he cherishes still. A thing that he might not have experienced had he not given his time to someone he loved.

Sometimes giving something to others is giving something to God. One time I was leading a children’s sermon and asked the children what God looked like. This rambunctious little boy raised his hand up high and said, “God looks like me.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Because God lives in me,” he said with assurance of a sage much older than he was then or is now. He was right, God lives in him, and me, and you. When we give our time, we give things individuals might experience. And truly one such individual is always God. What will we give?

With hope and joy,
Garrett

God Knows

God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together. 
God, you pulled me out of the grave, gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out. – Psalm 30:2-3 (The Message)

Have you ever yelled for help? Had you fallen apart? When have you been down-and-out? Have you experienced God giving you another chance at life? Putting you back together?

This was e-mailed to me:
When you are tired and discouraged from fruitless efforts... 
God knows how hard you have tried. 


When you've cried so long and your heart is in anguish... 
God has counted your tears. 


If you feel that your life is on hold and time has passed you by... 
God is waiting with you. 


When you're lonely and your friends are too busy even for a phone call... 
God is by your side. 


When you think you've tried everything and don't know where to turn... 
God has a solution. 


When nothing makes sense and you are confused or frustrated... 
God has the answer. 


If suddenly your outlook is brighter and you find traces of hope... 
God has whispered to you. 


When things are going well and you have much to be thankful for.... 
God has blessed you. 


When something joyful happens and you are filled with awe... 
God has smiled upon you. 


When you have a purpose to fulfill and a dream to follow... 
God has opened your eyes and called you by name. 
Remember that wherever you are or whatever you are facing... 
GOD KNOWS!!

And maybe you are saying, “Yes, yes, I know all of this already!” Sometimes we get tired of hearing that God is with us because it just doesn’t seem to make a difference. Maybe that is because we haven’t yet yelled for help. “If God is with me, and God knows everything, why should I pray?” we have each thought. We pray because we are the ones who are down and out, we are the ones who need to be put back together, and because God knows but we don’t. So let us yell out to God, we might even be pulled out of a grave we didn’t know we were in.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Thanks God All the Time

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (The Message)

Read the passage again, are you living that way? If not, why not? Have you tried thanking God no matter what happens? Why can we live this way if we live in Jesus?

This story was e-mailed to me:
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way. I wrote: ‘Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.’" Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

A lot of life is how we look at it. Now don’t get me wrong, that is not all of life. But sometimes we get so down about what we do not have, we forget about what we do have. A friend told me about seeing a little boy watching his father complaining in a store about all what life had dealt him and his family. The poor boy started crying and his dad angrily said, “Why are you crying?” He hugged his father’s leg and said, “Daddy you have me.” We each have great reasons to give thanks and to rejoice, let’s hold onto them and thank our God that we have them at all!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from November Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

I was at a cafe with a new friend a couple of months after my arrival to Georgia in the spring of 2008. There we sat enjoying a cup of hot coffee, and even as I drank it I knew that soon I would want iced coffee. Spring does not seem to last long in this part of the world. This last year we had a cold winter (for us that is), and spring lasted all of two weeks before temperatures were topping out at 100 degrees by the end of May.
As I sat there with my new friend and bemoaned the approaching summer, the summer that many told me would let me know if I could make it in the South, he told me, “Wait for the fall, the fall down here is great.”
“How long until the fall comes?” I asked in response.
He laughed and told me that the fall would seem like it would never come, but then “once it does,” he said, “it will be beautiful, you will appreciate it, and I promise you, you will give thanks!”
During the midst of that first summer, when the heat index would top out at one million degrees and the humidity would cause me to ponder if I was breathing in more water than air, I forgot his words completely. That happens to hope sometimes. We forget all about it in the midst of the misery, but just because hope is forgotten does not mean it does not exist. Hope was there even if I did not know it, and then when October rolled around and fall became a reality I remembered his words, “It will be beautiful, you will appreciate it, and I promise you, you will give thanks!”
And so I did. First I appreciated it. I appreciated not having to wear insect repellant as if it were cologne. I appreciated not having to shower just because I went outside. Then I noticed the beauty. It was incredible. Some trees turning colors, others not, but the beauty was all around. I noticed it as I walked and travelled, I noticed it in the sky and on the ground. And then the last part came; I gave thanks because I could not help it. I thanked my God because it was too wonderful not to thank God.
Here it is again. Fall, or autumn, or whatever else you want to call it, and it is beautiful. I hope you appreciate it, and should you notice, I promise you, you will give thanks. Give thanks to God because after all this is God’s handiwork. And surely we celebrate Thanksgiving now partly for the beauty that surrounds us.
That leads me to a question I suppose. For what else are we truly thankful? Are we even able to be thankful, or are we too weary to notice all the beauty that surrounds us? I hope not! I pray that we are not too beaten down by the world to give thanks.
How do you give thanks to God? At this time of year our church, along with many churches, will begin a stewardship campaign. We could come up with some catchy phrase or slogan, but let’s just leave it at giving thanks. Sometimes I am able to see how glorious the world truly is. Sometimes I am able to see blessings mount up even among concerns. Sometimes I know with all that I am that God’s goodness surrounds me and I want to give thanks. Let us join together in giving thanks to God by giving a portion of what God has given us back to God in order that God might make this church become God’s hope and joy!
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Love and Forgiveness

At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, "Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?" Jesus replied, "Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.” – Matthew 18:21-22 (The Message)

Have you had to forgive one person a lot of times? How hard was it? What about Jesus’ message made forgiveness this important? Have you ever wanted to give up on someone? Did you? Would Jesus?

The following is an anonymous story that was e-mailed to me.
When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!"
Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults - and choosing to celebrate each others differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

We have no idea how close anyone is to giving up on himself or herself. Each of us has had others give up on us, and then wanted to throw in the towel too, to say, “I’ve had enough!” God created us to live together, and let’s be honest; we don’t always live together well. That is why we need forgiveness, without it love cannot win, because without it love cannot exist. Sure forgiveness is hard sometimes, most of the time really, but not forgiving is worse.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

The Way Toward Life

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death. – Proverbs 14:12 (NRSV)

What way seems right to you? How did you discover this as the way? Might the way that seems right to you lead to death? What way leads to life? What is life?

I’ve heard this story before.
A university professor went to visit a famous and important theologian. While the theologian quietly served tea, the professor talked about theology, God, and the like. The theologian poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted out.
"You are like this cup," the theologian replied, "How can I help you to see God unless you first empty your cup."

When it comes to life I think sometimes Jesus shouts out, “How can I show you God and give you life unless you first empty your cup!” We go about our days filling ourselves up with all kinds of things, and then calling that life. Then if we go to church, or if we pray, or if we pick up some sacred writing, we wonder why we do not seem to be filled with peace. Perhaps it is because we are too filled with things that are not God, or false ideas of God, to be filled with the presence of God, and to be filled with life and life abundant. If the way of Jesus isn’t our way, then even if our way seems right its end is death. In each of us something needs to be emptied in order that we might be filled. What in you do you need to empty? Jesus is waiting to fill that emptiness.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Never Give Up!

Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. – 2 Corinthians 4:1 (The Message)

What has God let you in on? Have you started the work that Christians are called to do? What hard times have come your way? Did you want to give up? Have you given up? Has God given up?

The following is from a biography on Edward Bennett Williams by Evan Thomas:
In 1986, Mother Teresa came to [Bennett’s] office in the Hill Building to ask for a contribution from the Knights of Malta to a hospice for AIDS patients. “AIDS is not my favorite disease,” Williams told Paul Dietrich, a fellow member of the order who helped him raise funds. Williams and Dietrich rehearsed a polite refusal to Mother Teresa. Her head peeking over Williams’s enormous desk, the diminutive nun made per pitch, and Williams apologetically, but firmly, declined. “Let us pray,” said Mother Teresa and bowed her head. Williams looked over at Dietrich, and the two men bowed with her. When she was done, Mother Teresa gave exactly the same appeal. Again Williams politely demurred. Once more Mother Teresa said, “Let us pray.” Williams looked up at the ceiling. “All right, all right,” he said, and pulled out his checkbook.

When the things we do are what God wants done we can never give up! Sometimes it seems like all options are exhausted, but prayer is never finished. Prayer is as much action as it is conversation with God. So pray on when the work seems too hard. Pray on when the way seems narrow and path is dangerous. Pray on and know that as long you have breath in your lungs there is something you can do to help change the world for glory of God!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

God's Rosebud and Our Faith

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5,6 (NRSV)

What does it mean to trust in the Lord? Do you? How have you tried to rely on your own insight? What happens? How will you acknowledge God in all ways?

The following was e-mailed to me and is called “GOD'S Rosebud”
A new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice.
The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact.
It wasn't long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem...
"It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine."
"The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily,
But in my hands they die."
"If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?"
"So I'll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step of the way."
"The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord knows.
I'll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose."

Mother Teresa said, “I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.” Oswald Chambers said, “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the one who is leading.” We are God’s beauties, and God will make us bloom when the time is right, if we are still following. So let us follow with faith!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Doing Good and Doing Love Anyway

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” – Luke 6:27-28 (NRSV)

What is the whole point of this verse? As we go about our Missions Week how can this verse guide our future? Do you pray for those who abuse you? How do you think Jesus expects us to act toward our enemies?

This is from "The Paradoxical Commandments" by Dr. Kent M. Keith that Mother Teresa had on the wall of her children's home in Calcutta.
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. 

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. 

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Our lives are meant to glorify God! So when Jesus talks about doing good to those who hate us it isn’t about them, it’s about God, it’s about us! I have probably used this “Anyway” illustration in a different weekly devotional, but sometimes it is good to hear again. Love and will change the world, but it begins with us. Today choose to love no matter what and then we will become people who glorify God no matter what.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from October Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Today I went to see a brand new baby, not even a full day old yet. Everyone knows there is something great about going to see a healthy baby. Mom looks exhausted (and rightly so), but bathing her little one with love. Mom and dad both look proud, which may be why one Southernism I have heard is, “I’m so proud for you!” Perhaps people who once experienced the pride of becoming a parent can see it in another person and say, “I’m proud for you.”
I remember hearing people say that when Langston was born. In would walk someone, and he or she would take one look at the scene and say, “I’m just so proud for you guys.” And I think each person who said it meant it, they were proud for us.
I had never heard that before that moment, or if I had heard it I had not noticed. That happens with life sometimes. We only notice things after they have affected us. I remember when I bought a 2004 Honda Civic. I thought it was a relatively new car style. At least in my own driving I hadn’t noticed many of them. Then as soon as I drove off the lot it seemed every other car on the road was a Honda Civic. How had I not noticed that before?
I had never noticed anyone saying to someone else, “I am so proud for you,” but I had probably heard it. Maybe it didn’t register because no one had been proud for me. Sure people had been proud of me, but never proud for me. Then as I held Langston, or Melinda held him, or whoever else, and in came so-and-so saying, “I’m proud for you,” I thought to myself, “Why yes, I am overwhelmed with pride, I suppose I am proud for myself!”
I wonder how many times God looks at the whole human scene, this whole mess of which we are all a part, and sometimes sees something that makes God just say aloud, or within, or however God would say it, “I’m just so proud for you!” I’d like to think God can do that sometimes. See something miraculous and smile. Maybe it is a smile that comes from a place of joy that we who are made in that divine image finally figured out what we could do because of it.
If God is able to do anything like this, perhaps God is doing it right now as God looks over our little church. Here we were a couple of years ago barely breathing as it were, and now we are raising money to help others who may actually be barely breathing in every literal and metaphorical way we can think of during this Missions Week. God was there rebirthing this church, and now God is just so proud for us as grace allows us to birth something in return. Our own little hope, our own little bundle joy. And as we hold onto this Missions Week, I hope we can sense God walk into our worship celebrations, smiling at the whole scene, maybe even saying, “I’m so proud for you.”
That’s a reason to celebrate! That’s a reason to raise money! That’s a reason to build bridges in our community! That’s a reason to try to be foolish enough to change the world! What we are proud for, God might just be proud for as well.
Riding this wave we know is the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Ministers of Reconciliation

But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. – 2 Corinthians 5:18 (ASV)

What does it mean to you that you are reconciled to God? Do you remember this when God feels distant? Does it make you feel more whole? What is your role in the ministry of reconciliation? What needs reconciling right now?

The following story was e-mailed to me:
There was a man who had a little boy that he loved very much. Everyday after work the man would come home and play with the little boy. He would always spend all of his extra time playing with the little boy.
One night, while the man was at work, he realized that he had extra work to do for the evening, and that he wouldn't be able to play with his little boy. But, he wanted to be able to give the boy something to keep him busy. So, looking around his office, he saw a magazine with a large map of the world on the cover. He got an idea. He removed the map, and then patiently tore it up into small pieces. Then he put all the pieces in his coat pocket.
When he got home, the little boy came running to him and was ready to play. The man explained that he had extra work to do and couldn't play just now, but he led the little boy into the dining room, and taking out all the pieces of the map, he spread them on the table. He explained that it was a map of the world, and that by the time he could put it back together, his extra work would be finished, and they could both play. Surely this would keep the child busy for hours, he thought.
About half an hour later the boy came to the man and said, "Okay, it's finished. Can we play now?"
The man was surprised, saying, "That's impossible. Let's go see." And sure enough, there was the picture of the world, all put together, every piece in it's place.
The man said, "That's amazing! How did you do that?" The boy said, "It was simple. On the back of the page was a picture of a man. When I put the man together the whole world fell into place."

In Christ, God put us back together. And wouldn’t you know it, when we are put back together we indeed can begin to put the world back together too. You who are reading this, yes you, have a part in God’s great ministry of reconciliation. We each have a part! Those of us who have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus are now to bring people together. Look out at this divided world, where can your ministry help bring it back together? Go out and minister and do not wait anymore, for you are needed more than you know!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Slowing Down...

“Be still, and know that I am God!” – Psalm 46:10

What does it mean to you to be still? How often are you still? Why do you think God is telling us here to be still? What does it mean to know that God is God?

The following is a prayer by the late author Wilferd A. Peterson.
Slow me down, Lord!

Ease the pounding of my heart

By the quieting of my mind.

Steady my harried pace

With a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me, admidst the confusions of my day,

The calmness of the everlasting hills.


Break the tensions of my nerves

With the soothing music of the sighing streams

That live in my memory.

Help me to know

The magical restoring power of sleep.


Teach me the art

Of taking minute vacations of slowing down to look at a flower;

To chat with an old friend or to make a new one;

To pat a stray dog,

To watch a spider build a web;

To smile at a child;

Or to read a few lines from a good book.


Remind me each day

That the race is not always to the swift;

That there is more to life than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward

Into the branches of the towering oak

And know that it grew slowly and well.


Slow me down, Lord,

And inspire me to send my roots deep

Into the soil of life's enduring values

That I may grow toward the stars

Of my great destiny.

Sometimes being still means just slowing down a little bit. The Hebrew verb translated “be still” also means something like letting go. We often try to keep pushing on in life in such a way that we forget that God is in control. Sometimes we just need to be still, to let go, to slow down, and let God be God so that we can rejoice in life’s little miracles.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from September Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Yesterday I met someone for the first time. It was filled with those moments that we all have when you meet someone for the first time. There were plenty of moments filled with that awkward silence we all know. Awkward because for some reason when we first meet another we need to fill the space with words, we can only sit in silence we people we know or people we aren’t paying attention to at all.
There was the getting to know you questions some without verbs. “Where you from?”
“California. Where you from?” The thing about a lot of those questions is that they don’t quite inspire conversation. “Where have you visited?” Again only one word answers. “What do you do?” Sometimes this question moves people on toward having more of a conversation. In my line of work I have found that the moment someone finds out what I do the person changes the way he or she was interacting with me. One moment we are having a casual getting to know each other conversation, the next moment is… well it’s just a little different.
Sometimes people feel like they have to tell me where they go to church which I have taken to mean is their way of letting me know that they believe in God. It is as though they are saying, “Hey listen I believe so you don’t need to pressure me into going to your church.” And if they didn’t tell me that I might invite them, if we got to that place where an invitation would seem appropriate that is, because I love my church. I love the people, I think the Spirit moves in that place, I know people who have discovered their God at that place and I have seen miracles happen there.
Other times the person tries to stop talking to me. Maybe such people have been hurt by religion so many times that they can no longer deal with it. That happens a lot, religious people being like all other kinds of people (even if we don’t like to admit it) hurt people. If I had not felt the call of God there are some “religious” people I have met that would keep me from ever wanting to be a part the whole mess. So I say what I do and those people who have been hurt by religion see me as all that has hurt them. I don’t blame them, but I do wish they would try to get to know me, and often times I would like to get to know them too. Maybe if we kept talking grace would show up and talk too, and who knows maybe even healing would happen.
Then there are the people who want to talk to me all the more. Maybe they are religious or maybe their not, maybe they believe in God or maybe they don’t, but they want to talk about God, because for some people God is just too interesting not to talk about. These people tell me their stories and want to hear mine. They share their ideas of the divine, their struggles, their joys, their sorrows, their anger, and whatever else, because when we actually take the time to talk about God we realize that we can talk about everything, nothing is off limits, and maybe that is why God is just so interesting in the first place.
This guy I met he was the third type. He didn’t come out and say it, but he kept bringing up God. First it was kind of as a joke because he told me he didn’t believe in God, but he just couldn’t stop himself. And after awhile there we were, talking all about God. I wasn’t trying to get him to believe, but I am not ashamed to tell him why I believe. And I don’t believe in order to be “saved” so much, I believe because the world I live in is so much better with God. I believe because when I see the beauty that is all around me sometimes I can see God. I believe because I have seen ordinary events become holy moments and I have no idea how it happened. I believe because I have seen people in love, and something about love always makes God seem closer. I believe because… well because… well I have no idea really, but I love it, and I wish everybody else could have that love too. Life with God is so much better than life alone, but so many of us choose to be all alone. Your not alone, and I’m not alone, and if we could offer the world anything it would be telling people about a God who is so interesting that we cannot help it.
At the end of our time together this guy I had just met said, “thank you.” Maybe he’ll never believe in God, but I hope he wants to keep talking about God because if he does some day he might just find himself believing and have no idea why.
Riding the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Good News at Bad Times

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. – Psalm 23:1 (KJV)

What does this verse mean to you? Have you ever uttered it before? When did you say this verse? Did you need comforting? Does this verse tell you anything about how to lead your life? If so what?

The following is a prayer first prayed by Thomas Merton:
My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Life isn’t easy and we all know it. Sometimes in the midst of the pain and fear it seems as though everything is collapsing in around us, we all know this too. At such times it is good to recite that famous verse, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Those words are as powerful now as they ever were. They are filled with ancient comfort and incredible wisdom. Just like that prayer is. Now we’ve all prayed it. We have each prayed that our lives be filled with a desire to please God. And somewhere in the middle of praying that prayer and reciting that verse we discover that God is with us no matter how bad life might seem. Even if it is awful we aren’t alone, and that’s good news no matter what.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Division and Forgiveness

After a first and second admonition, have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions, since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful, being self-condemned. – Titus 3:10-11 (NRSV)

Have you ever caused divisions? What did you do? Did people offer you the chance to repent? Did you? What happened? Have you ever admonished someone who was divisive to stop for the sake of everyone? What happened? How is someone who does not stop “self-condemned”?

A couple of nights ago I had a dream. It was one of those long restless dreams that make us feel groggy when we wake up, like we didn’t have any sleep at all. In the dream I did something awful and was caught in the midst of my wrongdoing by a group of good friends. What they caught me doing shocked them because my action hurt them badly. In a testament to their friendship they begged that I apologize.
I didn’t, I refused, and even though I knew I had done wrong I thought, “Who are they to tell me to apologize.” My pride got in the way just as it often does in my waking life. Again they begged me to apologize in order that we could move on, in order that the person I hurt the most could get over the pain. In my refusal things turned from bad to worse, a fight ensued and the division I had caused only got worse until I was all alone.

It was just a dream, and yet so often such things happen in the real world. The late British writer Charles Williams once penned the words, “Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven.” In my dream I refused to be forgiven, because I refused to admit I had done wrong (even though I knew that I had), and all I then did was make people hurt worse. I ended up all alone, and in that way I suppose I can see how someone who causes divisions is being self-condemned; all alone due to a pride that keeps him from accepting forgiveness. These words to Titus are still good for us to remember, because sometimes we are the ones causing the division.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

The Fuel for Joy Project

One Sunday morning a couple of weeks I was about to leave for the church. It was my normal Sunday morning. Up to dress, drink some coffee, go over the sermon, get ready to go. Sometimes things become so normal to me I forget how precious the moment is, or could be if I just recognized it, but I suppose we all do that occasionally. I kissed my wife and son goodbye knowing that I would see them soon. Took the same way out I always do and thought nothing of the little footsteps following me.
I opened the door to go outside and closed just the storm door as I left. Langston stood at the door looking at me smiling, it still melts my heart to see that little smile directed at me. As I got into my car and started to pull out of the driveway I looked forward and there was my boy waving his little hands, and I could tell he was shouting out, “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” over and over again. I pray to my God the memory of that moment never leaves me, it has already been my fuel for joy in moments of despair.
God offers a world so full of beauty, a life filled with surprise, and moments of inspiration to each of us with the express intent that we in turn offer the world what God has given us, joy! The Fuel for Joy Project is an offer to each of us to look for joy in the world and share it with others. What is your joy? Let me know. Send your stories to garrett@1stpresalbany.org (or mail them to the church) and let’s start a journal, or maybe even a book full of stories, full of fuel for joy for all those in moments of despair.

Minister's Minute from August Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

You have a story to tell. Yes you, the one reading these little words right now. Maybe you are thinking, “What story do I have to tell?” And maybe you say that because you think your story is boring, because you know you have a story. Life is a story. It starts way back when, before we can remember. I don’t even remember the age I was of my earliest memories, and sometimes I don’t know if I remember something about my life or if I only remember the stories I was told. I guess it doesn’t really matter. All of that jumbled up mess in my head becomes my story.
I was born on September 3, 1980 at exactly 1 pm Pacific Standard Time, which is 4 pm Eastern Standard Time. I don’t remember being born. I don’t remember the first time I was held by my parents or the first time my mother kissed me. I don’t remember any of that, but I’ve heard stories about it. And while we each have our own stories to tell, we find out in the course of our lives that other people have their stories to tell, and sometimes in their stories we make appearances, sometimes they have stories to tell about us.
I look forward to being able to tell Langston about some of the stories I have about him. There will be some moment in his life when things seem to be spiraling out of control, because there are times in everyone’s life when that is true. And when that happens, maybe I can tell him about the day he was born. The way he urinated all over the nurses as soon as he came out. The way he puckered up to kiss his mother the first time their faces met. And while that story may not help him in whatever he is going through, it might help him realize that life is bigger than any one moment no matter how horrid it is.
The truth is – even if we think our stories are boring – we like to share them. Today I was sitting in a living room with three other people sharing stories. One of us would say, “There was this one time…” and then we would share about that one time, that one time unique to whomever was sharing it. Then someone else would come up afterward saying, “That reminds me of the time…” and then some other story maybe similar or maybe not was shared. In the hour I was there I must have shared a dozen short stories of my own life and heard many more. And as I left our little story telling session I realized something, we had each grown closer in that hour.
Perhaps that is why we share our stories in the very end, to grow closer with others. I recently read a study that was done over the course of years about couples. This study said that when people were dating the two could sit at the dinner table and would talk on average 51 minutes an hour. That leaves 9 minutes for eating and drinking and whatever else. When people got married the time spent talking immediately went down, and continued going down the longer they were married.
At first I was a bit saddened by the study, but as I thought about it some more I realized it wasn’t such a bad thing, maybe it is even a good thing. Surely there are less stories to share with someone you know so well, therefore you are not trying to get to know them as much as you are just trying to be with them. The stories that you have now you have together. Since God shows up in the silence (read about Elijah if this sounds strange to you), maybe the silence we can have with our loved ones means that we are just comfortable loving them as they are, and then being with our beloved, because what can be more special than being with the one we love?
Now I have a couple of thoughts. First it is good we share our stories with people we meet. It is the only way we make friends, people who know us, and friends are good. Secondly do not forget to listen. It is as important to listen to another’s story as it is to share our own, because only in listening to them do we get to know them, can we grow to love them, can we move to the point where we create stories with them, and then maybe we will be able to sit down together and not say a word and feel like plenty was said.
Finally perhaps God sometimes seems so hard to hear because God does not feel like there is anything to be said. God sits there with us silent just because God knows our stories and loves us without having to say a thing. God is happy being in the presence of God’s beloved. Next time I am sitting alone in silence I hope I can remember that I am not alone, God is there too happy just to be with me.
Riding the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Wise and Healing Words

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. – Proverbs 12:18 (NIV)

When have words hurt you? Do you remember who said them? When have words healed you? Do you remember who said them? When have you used reckless words? Did you want to hurt someone? When did you use your words wisely? Did it bring healing?

The following is from Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and can be found here: http://www.lukeford.net/Dennis/t4.html
Over the past decade, whenever I have lectured on the powerful, and often negative, impact of words, I have asked audiences if they can go for 24 hours without saying any unkind words about or to anybody. Invariably, a minority of listeners raise their hands signifying "yes"; some laugh; and quite a large number call out, "no!"
I respond by saying, "Those who can't answer ‘yes’ must recognize that you have a serious problem. If you cannot go for 24 hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol. If you cannot go for 24 hours without smoking, you are addicted to nicotine. Similarly, if you can not go for 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, you have lost control of your tongue."

It is well worth our time to read the rest of the Rabbi’s article, but the point is made. Sometimes we say mean things without knowing it, we call it miscommunication, and maybe it is. Miscommunication is easy when we don’t take the time to consider a situation. Maybe that is why the proverb comments about the tongue of the wise. It is a wise person who takes the time to realize that miscommunication is possible and ensures that her words are healing no matter what, and what would the world look like if we could all control our tongues for 24 hours? Perhaps it is time to find out!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Doing What We Can

“She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” – Mark 14:8-9 (NRSV)

What can you do for Jesus? Have you done it? What is holding you back? How are you holding yourself back? Who have you seen that did something beautiful for God? What can be told about you wherever the good news is proclaimed?

Jesus spoke this of a nameless woman (in Mark’s Gospel that is) who poured expensive perfume all over him. Some people said it was a shame that she would waste it, but not Jesus. He praised her for doing what she could do, which was lovingly giving the best she had to Jesus.
Many of us wish we could do all sorts of things for Jesus. We wish we had more money so that we could give it to the church for some kind of ministry. We wish we had the ability to preach like Billy Graham so that we could tell more people about the love of Jesus. We wish we could write some hugely successful book like Rick Warren so that others might find meaning in their lives. Sometimes our wish is that others would get out of our way so that we could do what we want. The whole while we are wishing about what we might be able to do we never do what we can.
This woman did what she could, and we still talk about it 2000 years later!

Just last week a married couple worked on bicycles for the needy here at the church. Using their talents they were able to make three bikes work that before didn’t. I thanked them for blessing three needy people by taking their time to repair those bikes. “Oh we are only doing what we can,” I was told. And somewhere Jesus was rejoicing, praising them for doing what they could. What can we do for Jesus? Whatever that is, it is time to do it!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Abounding In Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13

What does it mean to be filled with all joy and peace in believing? Have you ever considered God “the God of hope”? Do you abound in hope? Have you met anyone who abounds in hope? How do they live?

This story was sent to me:
A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trip to school.
As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school, and she herself feared that the electrical storm might harm her child. Following the roar of thunder, lightning, like a flaming sword would cut through the sky.
Full of concern, the mother quickly got in her car and drove along the route to her child's school.
As she did so, she saw her little girl walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up and smile. Another and another were to follow quickly, each with the little girl stopping, looking up and smiling.
Finally, the mother called over to her child and asked, "What are you doing?" The child answered, "Smiling, God just keeps taking pictures of me."

And maybe that is an image of abounding in hope, yes maybe that is being filled with joy and peace. Knowing that God cares about us so much that God would never abandon us, and looking at fear in the face and smiling. Smiling because God is with us then too, and we aren’t alone. An old English proverb says it best, “Fear knocked on the door and faith answered. No one was there.” Today let us pray that the God of hope may fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that not only we will not fear, but also that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s a good way to be.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

The Greatest Power on Earth

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” – Jeremiah 31:3 (NRSV)

How has God been faithful to you? Have you felt the everlasting love of your God? Have you experienced great love from others? How so? What did it feel like? What did it do for you as a person?

The following is a response from Warren Buffet after being asked the question, “What is the best advise you have ever received?” He begins by speaking of his father and then says:
"The power of unconditional love. I mean, there is no power on earth like unconditional love. And I think that if you offered that to your child, I mean, you’re 90 percent of the way home. There may be days when you don’t feel like it — it’s not uncritical love; that’s a different animal — but to know you can always come back, that is huge in life. That takes you a long, long way. And I would say that every parent out there that can extend that to their child at an early age, it’s going to make for a better human being."

Everlasting love, unconditional love, that love that loves us just because, that is the love that grabs us and lets us know that we can become great! God loves us with an unending, awe-inspiring love. Why? Because that is who God is. When we finally realize that it is then we get on living life the way we were meant to live, knowing that we have the greatest power on earth with us, unconditional love. Maybe someone is asking, “How are we meant to live?” Well giving unconditional love in return. Loving God and loving others, and how great would it be if we extended that to all we encountered?

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from July Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Recently I had someone tell me, “Garrett, I feel in love with God because of how my life has changed here.” The here that was mentioned was our church. This person then went on to explain how life has changed, and I was able to witness how the Gospel of Jesus the Christ changes lives!
We talk about praying to become God’s hope and joy. Have you ever really thought about that? Have you considered how crazy that is? Have we really any idea how much our lives are going to change when God begins to answer those prayers? Many of us probably have some idea, because we have already seen the power of the Gospel at work in our lives. Many of us have discovered God changing us. Perhaps we discovered it when we woke up one morning and from some place out of the blue said, “Thank you Jesus for another morning.” I know that happened once because someone told me. Maybe we discovered it gradually, taking inventory of our lives as we sometimes do and realizing, “Wait a second, I am not the same person I was and that is a good thing.”
Or maybe some of us are thinking, “Nothing has changed about me.” It might be that those of us who say that nothing has changed haven’t begun to pray to become God’s hope and joy. Perhaps prayer is a scary thing to some of us, as though it is something we do only when we are in danger. Danger of losing our jobs, health, vitality, security, or whatever else often causes prayers to be raised by those who haven’t prayed in years. And since we only know how to pray when dangers surround us, we do not know how to pray when things seem okay or even good. What if we actually believed that no matter how good life is it could be better?
The thing is it can be better! Prayer is a relationship with God, and when we pray to become God’s hope and joy in this world, when we pray that the power of the Spirit overtake us, that the Gospel Truth might change us, we pray for a better life no matter how good life is. Why pray for a better life when life seems good? Because with Jesus it can always get better! When those dangers surround us that cause the majority of our prayer lives now, we will still pray with our concern and grief, but we will also pray to a God we know is for us and is with us, because we have been praying to that God for so long anyhow.
Our church has grown quickly, and recently the growth has slowed down and I believe that was necessary to ensure that we caught up to the growth we had. In praying to become God’s hope and joy the growth had to slow down so we could figure out how to take care of each other. In these last six months I have seen people begin to take care of each other in a way that did not happen when I first arrived, and did not happen for the first two years I was here. That is this church becoming God’s hope and joy!
We must never forget the power of the prayer we call our vision, and we must never cease praying it. There is much more that God has planned for us, I can feel it, and if you sit for a moment with your thoughts and with your God I know you can too. We must soon begin growing again. Why you might ask? Because there are others in our community who do not have a church, who do not know about God’s hope and joy as found in Jesus the Christ, who do not know that their lives can get better too! Some will never believe it, thinking that they can discover joy in the world alone, but we believe it. If you have discovered yourself changing it is time to get people into church who need changing too! If you know the love of Christ and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding do not keep it to yourself. There are thousands of people in Albany that need this church and we have to bring it to them and bring them in. God is counting on it. How will you help make our prayer of becoming God’s hope and joy a reality?
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Integrity: Being In God's Presence

In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. – Psalm 41:12 (NIV)

What does it mean to have integrity? Do you have integrity? Have you met anyone with good character? How has meeting such people changed your life? Who is watching you as you go about your life? Are you a good example? How does integrity put you in the presence of God forever?

The following story came from Vanderbilt Today (Summer-Fall 1999) in an article entitled, “The Nature of Virtue,” by Gaynelle Doll.
My alma mater has an honor code that is respected throughout the university. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
Student signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is a statement of the honor code as well as the words of the man for whom the building is named. Madison Sarratt, longtime dean of men at Vanderbilt University and a teacher in the mathematics department, died in 1978. He wrote, “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
Sarratt’s former students still speak of the effect those words have had on their adult lives.

Almost everything can be taken from us in this world. Our health, our stuff, those we love, our security, and much more can be taken in just a moment. One thing that can never be taken is our character, our integrity, our goodness. We can abandon our integrity and choose an “easier” way, but it is a way that leads away from God. When we keep our integrity in those moments it might seem best to lose it, it is then we are in the presence of God. And that is a good place to be because as John Knox said, “A man with God is always in the majority.”

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Where is God When We Cry

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? 

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest. – Psalm 22:1-2 (NRSV)

Have you ever felt like crying out like this? What was going on in your life? How bad was it? Where was God when you made this cry? Did this cry ever pass?

The following story has been sent to me before, and I have since discovered that it is a Fred Craddock story.
Nettie and I got acquainted in Chautauqua, New York, with a minister who had no arms. He was born with nothing from here. No arms. He was telling us one day there at Chautauqua the experience of learning to put on his own clothes without any arms. He said his mother always dressed him, and he’d gotten to be a pretty big boy. She fed him, she dressed him, she fed him, she dressed him. One day she put his clothes in the middle of the floor and said, “Dress yourself.”
He said, “I can’t dress myself, I don’t have…”
She said, “You’ll have to dress yourself,” and she left the room.
He said, “I kicked, I screamed, I kicked, I screamed, I yelled, ‘You don’t love me anymore!’ Finally, I realized that, if I were to get any clothes on, I’d have to get my clothes on.” After hours of struggle, he got some clothes on. He said, “It was not until later that I knew my mother was in the next room crying.”
I don’t know if God distances God’s self from us, but I know sometimes we feel distant.

Maybe God seems far away because there are times that God wants to make sure we know we can do what seems impossible to us. God isn’t really far away at all, just waiting for us to figure out that we can do things we never knew we could. So we cry out in our anger and our pain until we cannot cry anymore. Then looking at whatever obstacle is in front of us we charge ahead. And that is the answered prayer. Not that God does it for us, but that God just lets us be long enough to figure out that we can do it for ourselves, that we are stronger than we ever knew, that we are capable of the impossible, and God knows what else. So let cry our cries and shout our shouts, sooner or later we may find out that God was there the whole time.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

When At The Gates of God

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name. – Psalm 100:4 (NRSV)

What are you thankful for today? Have you told God? Have you told anyone for that matter? Where have you found the gates of God? Where do you think God’s courts are? How have you blessed God’s name?

I once heard that each time you pick up the phone you should smile. When I asked why I was told, “Because the person on the other line will be able to hear your smile and you will make their day better.” Ever since I have heard that mighty peace of wisdom I have tried to follow it. Even if I am not making the person’s day better on the other end of the line, it makes my day a little better.
Mother Teresa once said, “Kind words can be short and very easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” I suppose that is true. I remember the people who tell me very kind things and very mean things. Both stick with me. Sometimes I say very rude things before I think about it. It really is simple to say something rude, and we try to apologize later saying something like, “I am sorry about that, my emotions got the best of me.” But we know that doesn’t make it better, those awful words hang in the air. The people we hurt are hurt. Words cannot really be taken back, which is why it is good to say kind words. They linger in the air too, but instead of pain they bring joy.
I got a call today from a friend. She was obviously smiling when I answered the phone, I could hear it and suddenly I was smiling too. She was so full of joy it made me happier. She was so full of thanksgiving it made me more thankful. Then she said some kind words about me and my heart rejoiced. Now I am praising God too!

I hear a lot of people talk about how awful the world is these days. We have each complained bitterly about something. But each morning we wake up we enter the gates of God. God’s courts are all around us, and there is plenty for which to be thankful! We must make choices though. We can choose to answer the phone with a frown and bring no joy. We can choose to say rude words and only make it so people don’t want us anywhere near. Or we can choose to rejoice with thanksgiving because we are in the courts of God, we are saved in the name of Jesus, we are God’s little loves. The choice is ours each moment. How will you enter the gates of God today?

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Drawing Near to God

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. – James 4:8a (NRSV)

How to you draw near to God? When was the last time that you tried? Did you discover God drawing near to you? How is your relationship with God? Could it be better? How will you make it better?

Sometime ago someone sent me this.
Listen
When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me that I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen! All that I asked was that you listen--not talk or do--just hear me.
Advice is cheep. Thirty-five cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
All I can do is do for myself. I am not helpless--maybe discouraged, but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
So, please listen and just hear me. If you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn--and I'll listen to you.

We know that those who listen to us are truly our friends, because they are not trying to offer us quick fixes, but instead are just trying to be with us when there are no quick fixes. God wants to be a friend, someone we can talk to and be heard, someone who isn’t going to interrupt us or offer us cheep advise before we are done with our stories, someone who holds us when we cry to let us know we are not alone. God wants us to get everything out so we felt heard, and it is then that God will talk to us. And if God is our friend then we will sit back and listen, and who knows what glorious things we will hear!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from June Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Here I am late at night, sitting in front of my computer feeling like an author dealing with a deadline. That happens sometimes with these “Minister’s Minutes.” The newsletter is ready to go out and all that is still needed is my part, and for the life of me I can’t think of anything. Melinda has gone to bed, but before she left me to my task she listened to me briefly complain about not having anything to write. I am both blessed and cursed with a wife who is often wiser than me. She looked at me without any pity (which is all I wanted) and said, “Why don’t you write about how we all want to be better people? Say something about how it is hard, and how we need to keep trying in the moment we have as opposed to thinking too far into the future.” Then she smiled, gave me a kiss and left.
I have no idea how to prove we all want to be better people, because there have been times each of us felt like we were fine the way we were. I have no idea if I can prove, or should even attempt to prove that we each want to be a better person, but I hope it is true. I hope that each of us can look deep inside ourselves and realize no matter how well we are put together that we can be better. I hope that the people we are now are not the people we will always be. I hope my faults, the small ones and the big ones, won’t always be. If grace is what grace is and work is what work is surely together grace and work can make me become a better person to myself, my friends, my family, and most assuredly my God.
Those who are Christians find inspiration to become better from the person of Jesus. In his humanity we see our lack of humanity, and there is something about his humanity that beckons us, that calls us to throw away our brokenness and lean forward into wholeness. Often the example of Jesus is too much though. We think to ourselves, “I am no Jesus, I am not even close and I never will be.” And so we leave it at that, no better than we were before because the goal seems so far away.
Of course should we lose hope when examining Jesus’ example we are poor students of scripture. It appears that God calls those who must become better. No one started off where they ended up. Many were called by God and said, “God you have the wrong person I can’t do this, I’m not good enough.” And it is as though God said, “You’re not good enough yet, but I’m not done with you.” Read some scripture if you don’t believe me. Read about Abraham and Sarah, read about Jacob and Moses, read about Sampson and David, read about Elijah and Jeremiah, read about a group of disciples who never seem to get it, and a man named Paul who once wrote, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” but also had the wherewithal and faith to write right after that, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Why was Paul given hope that his wretchedness wasn’t the end of him when dealing with God? I am sure there were many reasons, but one from that old Sunday school song must have been at the forefront of his mind, “Jesus loves me this I know.”
The thing about being loved is that it makes us want to become better people. Maybe it has something to do with the people who love us, as though we want to become the person they think we can be. Melinda is right though, this is process and not some future we can just jump into. Each day we can become a little better when we let love guide us. I know this is true because I watch my wife. A couple of days ago I was trying to get Langston to say some words. Eventually I tried to get him to say “love.” “Langston, say ‘love,’” I said. He said, “Mommy,” and Melinda overheard him. When she went to bed tonight kissing me before she left, she went to sleep in his room since she knows she will miss him when she goes out of town to see a friend. For my little boy mommy is love, and therefore his mommy wants to become the best mommy she can be one day at a time. If we asked Jesus to say “love” I wonder if he might just say our name. Hmm, that makes me want to become the best me I can be one day at a time.

Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Why We Live

Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." – Mark 12:29-31 (The Message)

What does it mean to live this way? Have you ever tried to live this way? How do you think the world may seem if you lived this way? Have you met anyone who tried to live life this way? What was that person like?

I was sent this sometime ago:
When Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War II, he was stripped of everything—property, family, possessions. He had spent years researching and writing a book on the importance of finding meaning in life—concepts that later would be known as logotherapy. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, even his manuscript, which he had hidden in the lining of his coat, was taken away.
“I had to undergo and overcome the loss of my spiritual child, “ Frankl wrote. “Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning.”
He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.
“I had to surrender my clothes and he in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber,” said Frankl. “Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the main Jewish prayer, SHEMA YISRAEL (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)
“How should I have interpreted such a ‘coincidence’ other than as a challenge to LIVE my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?”
Later, as Frankl reflected on his ordeal, he wrote in his book MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING, ‘There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life…He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW.’”

Our meaning is discovered in love, and if we are filled with love for God and others maybe we can bear almost anything. During my many times in hospital rooms experiencing unspeakable suffering those who love God always seem to be able to bear what others cannot take. There is suffering in life, but with love burning within us we just might be able to take it all in stride because we know that we live to love!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Suffering and Hope

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. – Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)

Are you suffering? Have you ever been able to rejoice in your sufferings? What has helped you persevere during your sufferings? Have you discovered that character developed? What about hope? What does that love feel like in the middle of the hard times?

I remember this poem from my grandmother’s funeral. It is called “Footprints” by Margaret Fishback Powers.
One night a man had a dream that he was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, the other belonging to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints, and that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life...
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it. "LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."
The LORD replied, "My precious, precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

If we are wondering how we can walk any further in this journey called life, maybe God is carrying us right now. We have all made it through horrible things before, and we will all go through them again, but we will never go through them alone. With God there is always reason to hope, and I suppose then there is always reason to rejoice too.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

In Whose Hands

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, 
”Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word…” – Luke 2:25-29 (NRSV)

Why was Simeon so happy? Where did he place his faith? Do you believe in the promises of God the same way? What happens to those who place their trust in the Lord?

I once heard something about how the value of things change depending on whose hands they are in. For instance in my hand a basketball is about $20, in LeBron James’ hand that same basketball is suddenly worth millions. In my hands a tennis racquet is worth $60, in Roger Federer’s hands it is suddenly worth millions.
Or for a different kind of example in my hands 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish are 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. I put those same things into Jesus’ hands and it suddenly can feed 5000 people to satisfaction with leftovers! You get the point, the value of things change depending on whose hands they are in.
The same is true of life. In our own hands our lives are in shambles, and we are walking messes. When we try to go about controlling our own lives and destinies with all the intensity we can muster, we still look in the mirror and wonder why we feel so empty and without value. And maybe in the midst of that emptiness we can hear God’s voice softly saying, “Let me hold you and you will know you are the most precious thing ever.” And if we can’t hear it, God is still saying it.

Maybe Simeon once heard that voice, and if he did he listened. He let God hold him and thereby believed in the promises of God. Simeon could have been an old, tired and bitter man, but instead he was a hopeful and anticipating individual who was able to leave the world in peace. We will know peace when we are in the hands of God and discover that we are of infinite worth in those loving hands. And who knows, maybe one day, like Simeon, we will get to hold our God in our hands.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

The Least of These

And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” – Matthew 25:40 (NRSV)

Who are “least of these?” Why are they members of Jesus’ family? How have you treated such people? How have others treated such people? Why is this important to God? What does it mean to you that however we treat the least is how we treat Jesus?

The following story was recently e-mailed to me:
A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a seminary class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says that Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.
One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day.
On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture
Sally's friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the overall effect she had achieved.
The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn't have a chance to throw any darts at her target. Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall.
Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.
Dr. Smith said only these words.... 'In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.' Matthew 25:40.
No other words were necessary; the tears filled eyes of the students focused only on the picture of Christ.

Everyone is created in the image of the God who is love, meaning that everyone is miraculous to God if to no one else. When we act out of hate or rage we tear into those made in the divine image, and indeed attack Jesus in the process. There are really no other words necessary.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from May Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

I am writing this as I sit down outside the place where I am vacationing. It is a beautiful day, exquisite in everyway. The sky is crystal clear and perfect blue. I can hear the waves from the gulf gently crash against the coastline. Birds are flying overhead, and the breeze blows through my hair and enlivens me. In the Hebrew language the word for Spirit and wind is the same word. I am always amazed at the wisdom of the Hebrew people for concluding that such a word should be one in the same. When the wind blows I am sure those ancient people were always reminded that God was with them, in Spirit if in no other way at that moment. And as I hear the gulf declare its power while the wind blows and the beauty of the moment declares to me the majesty of love and glory that can only be found in creation, I am also reminded of God resting when creation was completed. I am convinced God rested not because of exhaustion but because of exuberance. There must have been an awesome delight that God felt in those first moments things were completed. When those first waves went crashing into those first shores. When those first stars twinkled and those first birds sang their choruses of joy. When those first flowers bloomed and those first people walked through this paradise we call Earth smiling, or not smiling, but hopefully full of wonder at all that surrounded them.
I was told before going on this vacation that I should turn everything off, cell phones, computer, whatever else that may distract me, and I am sure that someone will read this and think, “I told him not to work while he was away…” This is not work though this is a celebration, and I cannot help but share it, because it is too good to experience alone. I get to sit for a couple of moments and experience the pure ecstasy of creation, and by God’s grace if nothing else, perhaps I get a sense, however brief, of what God must have sensed when it was all done. And that sense as far as I can tell is the pure pleasure of it all, and wherever pure pleasure is there is also love. Maybe that command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is what I am experiencing right now. Those few moments we all should take to step away from the busyness of life to recall that life is so much more than what we do each day. Occasionally life is also just taking it easy. To know that we can take a break from the busyness, knowing that the world worked just fine before we existed and somehow will work just fine when we stop breathing, and thereby will go on even if we stop for a moment and just celebrate the glory of it all.
I wonder how much of my life I sat trying to kill time. It is an awful phrase, “killing time,” because the truth of the matter, whether or not we live like it, and we often don’t, is that we only get one life to live. We know that deep inside most of us think that one life to live is enough a lot of the time. The busyness of life has become for us all that life is, and we long for some kind of rest from it all, some type of break, and we ponder if that break will be death. That final moment we all share but no one really understands, other than to know that the busyness will be over and rest will finally come. Therefore even in those moments we could celebrate all that life offers, which is to say much more than busyness, we sit killing time, or not sitting but still killing it in someway to get to that next moment of busyness that we have convinced ourselves is the purpose of life.
But I sit here right now overflowing with joy in this moment when I am not killing time, but wishing with all that I was that life could go on forever, because in some moments when the wind rushes through my hair and I can feel that ancient Hebrew wisdom that God is with me in Spirit I want life to go on forever. I feel like I don’t want to kill time anymore, because when I kill it I will never get it back. Jesus said, “I came to that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” So I write this on my vacation not because I am working, but because I have to write down how abundant life is before I get back to the busyness and maybe forget. Should I forget I’ll have this to look back on and remember how important those Sabbath moments are when God and I sit together and remember that the work will always be there, but I will not, so it is good to enjoy all that there is for at least for a moment. This moment where God and I smile together, and whisper about how it is all so good.
Riding the wave of Holy Spirit,
Garrett

Promises of Something New

“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” – Revelation 21:5 (NRSV)

What does it mean to you that God still makes all things new? Have you ever felt like you needed to be made new? When was that? What was going on? Did you pray to be made new, for a new beginning?

I found the following prayer at this site:
http://www.inspirationalarchive.com/texts/topics/prayer/helpmetobelievebegin.shtml
God of history and of my heart, so much has happened to me during these whirlwind days: I’ve known death and birth; I’ve been brave and scared; I’ve hurt, I've helped; I’ve been honest, I've lied; I’ve destroyed, I've created; I’ve been with people, I've been lonely; I’ve been loyal, I've betrayed; I’ve decided, I've waffled; I’ve laughed and I've cried.
 You know my frail heart and my frayed history -
and now another day begins.


O God, help me to believe in beginnings and in my beginning again, no matter how often I've failed before. Help me to make beginnings: to begin going out of my weary mind into fresh dreams, daring to make my own bold tracks in the land of now; to begin forgiving that I may experience mercy; to begin questioning the unquestionable that I may know truth; to begin disciplining that I may create beauty; to begin sacrificing that I may make peace; to begin loving 
that I may realize joy. 


Help me to be a beginning to others, to be a singer to the songless,
a storyteller to the aimless, a befriender of the friendless; to become a beginning of hope for the despairing, of assurance for the doubting, of reconciliation for the divided; to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed, of comfort for the sorrowing, of friendship for the forgotten; to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn, of sweetness for the soured, of gentleness for the angry, of wholeness for the broken, of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.


Help me to believe in beginnings, to make a beginning, to be a beginning, so that I may not just grow old, but grow new each day of this wild, amazing life you call me to live with the passion of Jesus Christ.

If you have not prayed for a new beginning before you just did! Everyone has felt like we couldn’t get over our past, that somehow we have ruined ourselves beyond repair. However God is the God of new beginnings, and today we each have prayed for a new beginning. Today is the start of something new for us! God is making it so.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Why We Serve Others

He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to first must be last of all and servant of all.” – Mark 9:35 (NRSV)

What does that passage mean to you? What do you think great is? Have you met someone who served all those around you? Was he/she somehow first? How so? How have you served others? Did you experience greatness in those moments? What was it like?

The following story was sent to me:
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
“What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose.”
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.

And perhaps that is a tale of why serving others makes us first. In serving others we acknowledge their importance in the eyes of God, and someway discover that they are important to us as well because indeed all life is connected. In a world that believes being great, being number one involves riches, or fame, or prestige, or knowledge, or whatever else, God still declares that being first is seeing others as special and deserving of our attention and our service.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Love and Good Deeds

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:24-25 (NRSV)

What are some good ways to provoke love and good deeds? Have you provoked such things in others? Have others provoked such things in you? How? Why is it good to meet together? Why do we need to encourage one another?

Yesterday at Bible study a couple came up to me before we started to share with me wonderful news, she is pregnant. As always happens when people share with me their great news I smiled hugely and couldn’t wait to tell everyone else. If I am asked not to tell people things I don’t, but joyous news is hard for me to keep in. I asked if I could share their wonderful news and they gave me the okay.
We went through all of the Bible study and had our prayer requests afterward. For the final prayer request I asked that everyone keep the couple in their prayers because, “They are pregnant!”
The best part about sharing good news in front of a group of people is watching everyone’s faces. In an instant I witnessed the crowd in front of me transformed into joy, as everyone turned to the couple to celebrate and rejoice with them. And for a moment I saw a slice of the kingdom of God and I couldn’t be happier.

Meeting together will inevitably provoke love and good deeds! We were not made to be alone, but made to live together. As we grow together we will always find more people to love, and more people who love us. In our world it is hard to make it through some days. If we lack encouragement it is a good time to make it back to a church home where we can discover we are not going through things alone. I pray that if you are reading this a cloud of love and good deeds surrounds you. If not my prayer is that soon such wonderful things will surround you. There is a church out there waiting for you!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

The Hope of the Poor

But those who have troubles will not be forgotten. The hopes of the poor will never die. – Psalm 9:18 (NCV)

Have you ever felt forgotten in your troubles? What was it like? What was going on? Have you ever looked over the community and felt hopeless? What does it mean to you that, “The hopes of the poor with never die?”

This week First Presbyterian Church served two meals to high school students who came from Illinois to Albany for their spring break. The reason they travelled the 18 hours by bus to get here was to help build homes for Habitat for Humanity.
Apparently the students had heard that they could come down for the week and serve others in need. One of the faculty supervisors told me that they came up to her with a full spread sheet they had done on their own, explaining the places they would stop, where they would eat meals, and every other thing that could be considered.
It was incredible to go down to the worksite and watch teenagers working together in a foreign place to fight the good fight, to remember those who have troubles and let them know they are not alone, they are loved by teens from 900 miles away. Hearing how they had no idea what pimento cheese was, or watching some have their first bite of banana pudding, while they shared how excited they were to be able to serve was a blessing. After each meal they were filled with gratitude that we would do anything to serve them. I kept thinking to myself, “How could we not serve you for serving us, it is I who am filled with gratitude.” And it was then I realized that in serving these incredibly devoted youth that we were also serving those they were serving.

Indeed when we serve others the hopes of the poor will never die! A lot of people give up hope when they see all the pain in the world. I have heard many people bemoan the state of our young people, and wonder what good will be left in the future. And yet just this week I saw 55 young people who instead of resting or partying with their time off decided to figure out ways to serve the needy. Hope abounds all around us, we need only open our eyes to see it. Hope can also be created the moment we stop bemoaning all the pain, and decide to go into it, and with the power of the Holy Spirit do something about it. Today let us learn from a group of teenagers from Illinois, and discover all the ways to serve in our communities.

With hope and joy,
Garrett