Change

Blog for 9/19 Huron

“I’m gonna get you a blind dog” Russ threatened for the hundredth time as I conned him once again into helping me move some furniture under the pretense of needing to clean only to within hours have furniture moving explode beyond the original boarders.   I know it is an idle threat he really isn’t going to adopt a blind dog just so I don’t move any more furniture around but he can and has refused to help move things again. 

I cannot help myself. I love to change my house around and until I finally “settle” on the right configuration.  This is whatever feels right and can mean that I change things around several times.  It is interesting that I love to change and even get driven to change my house around and yet when it comes to life, I am not fond of changes.  I like my life to be comfortable and stable.  Too much change and I start to get, well like a blind dog trying to navigate my house after one of my “rearranges.”

We have been in an ever changing flux for the last year, and within this a lot of change has been “unknown.”  We have had to do a lot of trusting of God and believing in the greatness of the Almighty. 

It is easy as a church to get so stuck in being one way that any change can feel like a blind dog in a new house.  It is also so easy for a church to get stuck in trying everything new that you overwhelm yourselves with too much change.  It is also easy that when we have so much change going on that we fail to put our trust in God.

Let us remember as our church is in flux and things are changing that our everlasting God is present.  This stable Holy presence can help guide us and with love we can learn to navigate whatever life throws our way.   

God is compassionate and loving!

Psalm Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38

¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

³⁴When he killed them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁸Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath. 

Every time I read this passage, I cannot help but think about a women who I met during my time as a Chaplain at the hospital.  I can't remember and can't share all the details but I can tell you she was a larger women suffering from some pretty scary stuff.  She was having difficulty breathing which was keeping her up at night and at some point she had had a bad reaction to some medication - which caused hallucinations.  When I met her she had a lot of anxiety which was taking a toll on her mental and physical well being.  

We started praying and reading the psalms to find some comfort in her stay at the hospital.  This psalm 78 became a favorite.  Its beautiful language gives us a picture of a God who is close to us humans.  Despite all that was happening to her and despite all the sin she thought she had committed, she found her own worth in God's eyes.  That is pretty powerful stuff.

In today's world it is easier for us to compare ourselves with the images of others and with what we think we should be.  It is easy to make the case that we are not worthy or not good enough.  It is easy for us to fall into the trap that in order to receive God's grace you have to be a prefect Christian - a saved Christian - first.  But that isn't the case.  God is not only loving and compassionate but despite our human ways God sent Jesus showing us our worth.  Pretty powerful stuff!

So, today read through this psalm and pray to God for help to follow even when it is hard and let us lived into our worth that our compassionate God has shown us living up to and through the example set by Christ.  Amen!

Potter's Wheel

**this was sent out via email last week.  Sorry for the internet troubles last week**

This week passage from Jeremiah is the wonderful illustration as God as the potter working the clay on the wheel.  And my thought of the week is about how God is working in and through our lives.  You see many artists look at their materials and know what will come.  For instances a sculptor may know that wood or the stone will be a statue of a bird, before it begins to take shape; many sculptor’s will tell you that the material “speaks” to them as to what it will become.   God knows what we are going to become, God knows before we are formed and before we are in our mother’s womb God knows us.  Scripture tells us this and yet like the potter who may know that the block of clay will become a vase – God still plays a role in our lives. 

God’s role can be large or small.  God can intervene and try to change our shape but ultimately God like the potter is the artist.  You see even if that block of clay can become the vase – it only has the potential until it gets on the wheel and if no one is there to shape it the best that will happen is it may become an interesting look ash tray. 

Like the potter, and any good artist, God wants the best outcome for her creation.  He doesn’t want the ash tray but the beautiful and functional vase.   There, God doesn’t want to have to take stern actions to correct us but instead through ever loving presence we are formed seamlessly. 

Let us work today, on allowing the wheel of God’s will to spin us into our potential.  Let us take steps to follow God’s lead knowing the our Creator is working hard to let our wondrous self shine.  God isn’t looking for a bunch of perfectly shaped and molded vases, God is looking for each of us to be formed, uniquely and with our blemishes but strong in faith and mighty in our love.