“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
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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
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
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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
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
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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
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
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