Listening and White Privilege

It is Tuesday evening and I've been thinking all day about Ferguson, MO.  I've been on Facebook reading, listening, commenting and thinking.  I come here to work on my blog post today and I really just want to talk about something besides Ferguson. I want to see something besides arguments about the validity of rioting. I truly want to stop seeing the quotes from major civil rights leaders of the past that are STILL appropriate today, over 50 years later.

I want to stop hearing about all of it because it is too horrible. I don't want to see the pictures because it is too heartbreaking. Then I understand that my wish is only possible because I have white privilege.  I can turn off the TV, radio, and the computer and ignore what is happening because I don't have to live in fear.

A friend of mine was stopped by an officer for having a light out on her car. She was treated well and spoken to respectfully.  She commented on how she may have reacted differently to the stop, were she a person of color. She recognized her white privilege.

I've often talked about my frustrations at people who don't understand what it is like to get around in a wheelchair.  I get angry at the lack of enforcement of the ADA with regard to accessibility at public locations/institutions.  I've only been aware of this type of marginalization for a few years.  I can't imagine how it must be to have lived with this kind of anger and hurt for my entire life.

So I want to apologize to my friends of color. I don't know what you are going through.  I don't understand what it is like to be you. I don't even know if what I am doing to combat racism is working. I don't know if it is the best way to help.

I'm listening. I'm searching for and finding many wonderful voices and I'm listening.  Please forgive me for the times I haven't listened and for wanting to stop listening today. Please don't stop talking.

What can we do?

Earlier this evening the news came that Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted with regard to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. I am at a loss for words.  I'm afraid that saying anything will be the wrong thing and that saying nothing will signify acquiescence.

Let me first say that I have deliberately avoided listening to the variety of "eye-witness" reports. I also didn't listen to the litany of actions taken by Wilson. I don't know whether the grand jury did a good thing or not.  I don't know what the evidence says.  What I do know is that people are hurting in a big way. I also know that there are many who are seeing the grand jury's refusal to indict as a victory to be celebrated. What cannot be disputed in this situation is that Michael Brown is dead and a family continues to grieve as the nation looks on.

A friend - Crystal Lewis - posted this on her FB wall:

"At the end of his press conference, McCulloch said Michael Brown's case "opened old wounds" because he does not realize: These wounds are open for some of us every single day. These wounds are only "old" to those who own the privilege of occasionally forgetting what it really means to live in a country where a racial hierarchy exists. The wounds bleed non-stop, like new, for folks who live daily as minorities in our country. These are not "old" wounds. Old wounds heal. We have a long way to go before real healing can be embraced. With that, I'm going to bed. God, help America."

There is so much here that we need to hear.  These wounds are not healed and every day they are getting reopened. I'm at a loss, however. I am wondering, what can we do?

I just don't know.  We've got to change minds and attitudes before we will be able to change systems. That is not to say we shouldn't be working on both right now, we should do all we can in every way we can.  Perhaps the first thing is to stop and listen ourselves.  I don't know how healing can be achieved. I'm not exactly sure I know what healing has to happen. Why in the world do I think I can come up with the answers?  I'm not the one marginalized in this situation, I need to hear from those who are. I need to hear what they need from me.

So, my fellow white folks, let's stop trying to tell everyone what the solution is and listen for people of color to tell us what they need.  After all, they've been trying to do so for over a century.

Gleanings, leftovers and making our neighbors a priority...

As I left this morning, it was overcast but not yet raining.  I set up my GPS, plugged in my Kindle and got the new GoPro camera all ready to record. As of today, I have been serving this little church in Pine Bluff, AR for a year.

First Cumberland Presbyterian Church

I started as intermittent pulpit supply on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2013. I became the sole supply in March of this year and was officially recognized as stated supply in September. It's been a great learning experience and I've had a fantastic time!

I know how to get to the church and to get home but I use my GPS for a variety of reasons.  I like knowing how much farther I have to go and whether I'm on track to arrive on time.  The added bonus is finding different routes to come home. At a minimum, the trip is 3 hours in one direction.

Today there was a delay on the interstate due to construction. That last part is a guess, but construction delays are what caused me to begin looking for alternate routes in the first place.  My GPS alerted me to the delay and offered a shorter route home.

This route took me through quite a lot of farmland. I drove through rain and was struck by the complete transformation of the scenery over the last couple of weeks.  The rain and cold have taken their toll and the majority of the trees are now bare of leaves.

I had expected to see flocks of little black birds which swoop and dive in waves across the sky. I was hoping to catch some of these flights with my new GoPro video camera.  Because of the rain, however, the birds were mostly grounded. There were several fields filled with large white geese and small black birds.  Hundreds of birds had descended on these fields and I can only imagine that they are taking advantage of the abundance left after harvest.

This brought to mind the idea of gleaning that we read about in the Old Testament. God gave instruction to Moses saying:

Lev 23:22  When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the LORD your God.

During this week of Thanksgiving, many of us will find ourselves with an abundance of food. Are we working to find ways to share this abundance?  Are we, instead of leaving just gleanings to the poor, offering our best?  Today's lectionary Gospel reading from Matthew challenged us to see Christ in the hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned and the stranger.  If we see Christ in the "other", then shouldn't we be offering the best rather than just the leftovers?  What about our "leftover" time or money. Caring for and loving our neighbor means that we must not relegate them to being just an afterthought.  How are you making your neighbor a priority?

Some Things I've made:

Hey folks!  I'm struggling with stuffy head and migraines today so I'm just gonna post some pics of some knitting I've done.  It's a reminder to me to pick up some of my old hobbies and get back to them. The feeling of accomplishment and relaxation I get is invaluable. I've forgotten this lesson too often.

**************************************

This first is part of a shawl I've been working on.  It's using a discontinued colorway yarn from KnitPicks.com 

Here's a close up detail of the pattern in a different color.  I completed this shawl and gave it away.

This is an entrelac beret. I made another in a blue colorway. Both of them have a new home.  I like this pattern and will probably make more.  I'm kinda in love with berets.

Here's another pattern that I really liked.  This one starts with a bias edge which you can see in the picture on the right.  After knitting the band, you pick up stitches evenly all the way around and then purl your little heart out over and over, interspersed with a knit stitch every so often.  That's what makes the teardrop pattern.  I'm not a big fan of purl stitches so I turned it inside out and knit my heart out with a few purl stitches thrown in.  I gave this beret away as well.  I've started another one but got sidetracked...(who hasn't?) <grin>

This little guy is an MS Bear. There is a symptom of MS called an MS Hug.  It's a tightening of the muscles around the abdomen and is quite uncomfortable and even painful, depending on the severity.  This little guy is marketed by the MS Society and proceeds are used help those with MS deal with the variety of MS symptoms that we experience. I got this one for myself as a reminder that there is support out there, even for those who are alone in their struggle.  The fancy scarf, however, is from some left over "yarn."  I was making fancy scarves for friends and had a bit left over so my MS Bear Hug got some ruffles. 

Have a great day everyone! 

Chicken Pot Pie - Comfort food for cold weather!

We all have our favorite cold weather comfort food. Mine is frozen chicken pot pie. I'm not sure why, except that it brings back happy childhood memories. When I was a child, my mother would sometimes stick a frozen pot-pie in the oven for lunch. It seemed like it took so very long to cook it, I'd be half starved before it was ready. (Perspectives of kids, huh?) I've tried several microwave pot-pies but none of them took me back to those days. Then a friend introduced me to this recipe.  This makes a LOT of food. In fact, make a couple of them and you can feed the potluck at church pretty easily. If you are cooking for one, make sure you've got some freezer containers ready.

The directions call for a 9x13 pan but you really need a very deep pan for everything.  Also, the amount of time required to cook is directly related to whether you allow the veggies to thaw first.  I recommend you allow them to thaw at least half way.

Today I have decided to mix it all together and make them up in regular pie pans.  I've got enough dough for 3 pies, we'll see how it goes.

Quick and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Cream of Celery soup
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
2 cans (Large cans) of Chicken
1 tsp rosemary (very important!)
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 small or medium bag of frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, whatever)
1/2 bag of chunk style hashbrowns
4 large pie crusts

SPRAY PAN with NON-STICK spray... In 9x13 pan (deep is good) place 2 of the pie crusts (overlapping is fine). Mix above ingredients well and place in pan. Cover with the other two crusts. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes until crust is browned and pie is heated through.

Use your judgement on the amount of veggies and hashbrowns but don't use so many that they don't get coated with the soup mixture when mixed.

I like a lot of crust so one day I might try this by lining the bottom of the pan with either biscuits or Pillsbury crescent rolls!  (or maybe replace the top crust with the biscuits...yum!)

If you make this, please let me know how it comes out and whether you adjusted anything.

Happy baking!

Silence...

I love audiobooks. I've been a member at Audible since one of my best friends got me hooked early in 2009. I have hundreds of books. This means that I listen a lot! When I'm not listening to a book, then it's music or even the TV. 


I live alone but there seems to always be something making noise.  Why is that, I wonder?  I find myself listening to a book and checking my email at the same time.  I play instrumental music when I'm reading a book.  Why do I insist on so much audio/video stimulation?

Whether we like it or not, the commercial Christmas season is here.  We are inundated with all manner of visual stimulation. Lights adorn houses, streets, trees and we even create huge spectacles of lights as drive-thru attractions.  Wherever we go, chances are we will hear Christmas music playing in the store, restaurant or even the hair care salon.

Facebook is inundating everyone with "click bait" and it seems to be getting worse.  Click bait can be easily identified by phrases like "you won't believe what happened" or "a diet secret the doctor's don't want you to know about."  The sensational headlines entice you click to see "what happened" or read that "diet secret" and yet, when you do, you get very little outside of pop up videos and advertisements.  There are the flashing ads down the right side of the screen, misleading graphics that suggest a video but only lead you to another advertising website.  It's click bait because every time one of those advertisements gets "seen", someone gets paid.

Where is the silence?  Where do stop all the incoming information and just sit quietly with no noise and perhaps a simple candle for light?  I've gotten so used to the flood of stimulation that it takes a specific effort of will to simply stop and turn off all the stuff and just be.

Be still and know that I am God.  The hardest part of that is the "be still" part.  I challenge you to an hour of stillness each day.  If you can't be completely without stimulation, start slowly.  Turn off the radio in the car.  Leave the TV off and play instrumental music instead. Listen to an audiobook with your eyes closed.  Start by limiting your amount of stimulation to one source at a time.

Good Luck!

Shopping on Thanksgiving.

I've been thinking about the call to not shop on Thanksgiving Day. It is an attempt to show our displeasure at corporations that force their workers to work, rather than giving them all time at home with their families.  But what about those who rely on "holiday pay?"  I have known several people who volunteer to work on these days because they need the money.  Not just the money for another day of work but the time and a half or double time they might make.  I have been one of those waitresses who offered to work the holidays for the money. 

Will not shopping on Thanksgiving make a change in the corporate world? No, probably not.  There are stores who are acting self-righteous, however, in the hopes that you will choose them over those "thoughtless/heartless" other stores.  It's marketing. It's emotional manipulation.

Stay home with your family because you value your family and friends and want to share a meal and give thanks for the abundance that you have.  Go help at a shelter or soup kitchen to share your abundance with those less fortunate. Do this often, not just on Thanksgiving Day.

Remember that there are folks working on Thanksgiving because they need the money. Remember that there is such a pay disparity because we've allowed it.  Somehow the political talking heads have convinced us that raising the minimum wage is a bad thing, even those of us who are making barely above minimum wage.  Is there the same outcry when the CEOs get a pay hike? What about when the Senate and House raise their wages?

Let's stop focusing on the effect and start focusing on the cause. The root cause is greed. Our system oppresses the poor and exalts the wealthy. Jesus talked about how the Kingdom of God is like a number of things - none of those included a capitalist economy that looked after the wealthy and let the poor fend for themselves.  None of those included a society that blamed he poor for being poor. This world needs more humility in the face of these internet memes of outrage. It's easy to click like, feel a moment of self-righteous indignation and move on.   The real question is, what are you going to do to address the underlying systemic issues? 

Apparently it isn't voting...but that's another blog post. 

Spiritual wounds...

In CPE training we often talk about spiritual wounds.  When we visit patients, one of our responsibilities is to assess the spiritual needs of the patient. I learned this past week that the Memphis VA Medical Center is THE place for veterans to receive care due to spinal cord injury. There is a special wing dedicated to spinal cord injury patients.  The majority of the patients I've seen there are in the hospital for their annual check up.  Their general attitude is upbeat for the most part.  It is a bit different than other folks in the hospital who are most often there due to a medical crisis of some sort. 

These men (for I've only met men in this unit so far) are resilient. They really just want to get the tedious tests out of the way and get home. Sometimes they are requesting a new power wheelchair because theirs is worn out.  Based on my, admittedly very limited, experience, they have come to terms with their mobility challenges.

All of this is to say that spiritual wounds are often not about the obvious things. One gentleman was telling me that he and his wife were growing apart. Another was frustrated that they have been waiting on a consultation regarding surgery for several hours. Yet another was complaining about the hospital food. While people who use wheelchairs have a particular set of challenges, often their spiritual wound (if there is one) is no different than anyone else might have. 

Divorce, death of father or mother, estrangement from family and a myriad of other possibilities exist that can cause spiritual wounds. This is to say, at some point in our lives, we all will face an event or situation where our spirit can be wounded. Our job as chaplains is to consider whether this wounding is already healed or on the mend and, if not, is there anything we can do to support the patient in the process of healing. 

One of the hardest things for us, as students, is to realize when we're picking at a long healed wound and missing the important clues in front of us.  It's a challenge and one that all pastors face in their work of ministry.  Many people have deep wounds that they have long hidden from others and perhaps even themselves.  As a CPE student, chances are I will only see a patient once before they are discharged.  Do we do the patient a disservice when we dig deep with an inability to follow up?  Maybe, maybe not.  That is a situational call and one that cannot be taught, only learned by experience. 

I often come back to something I learned when working with people experiencing homelessness.  I am there in a ministry of presence. It is not my job to try to FIX anything. That's a hard lesson to learn. 

Anticipation...

The weather man has predicted freezing rain and snow tonight.  Something tells me it will be less impressive than I would like.  I enjoy rain and snow, although not necessarily at the same time.

I like the way the world looks when it snows.  I like how it is so quiet when there's a thick layer of snow on the ground. Memories of my youth playing in the snow come back and I pull out the hot chocolate and a good book. 

Growing up on a farm meant that I had fields worth of snow with which to build a snowman or make snow angels.   I've moved farther south and we rarely have any significant accumulation. It has been raining all day and the temp is hovering just under 40 degrees so it is cold.  I decided not to make a trip to the grocery store and ordered pizza. Apparently I am not the only one with this idea because estimated delivery is an hour and a half. I live a quarter mile from the store. 

Today I am indulging my inner child, waiting in anticipation for a pizza and waiting in anticipation of the coming bad weather, hoping like a little child for a snow day. 

A day of rest...

Sunday is sabbath. It is a day of rest, a day for rejuvenation.  Preachers don't celebrate sabbath on Sunday, of course. We pick a different day of the week. Well, sometimes we do.  Sometimes we don't have time, or at least that's what we tell ourselves. We have this habit of taking a couple hours here and a couple hours there and letting that "add up" to a sabbath day.

This is not a good thing.  God declared a full day as sabbath.  There is a reason for that. We need a full day of no work. We need to know from day to day when we will be able to shut down and just rest.  This means that the day shouldn't be different each week. The same day every seven days of complete rest.  This means no research papers, no sermon prep, no catching up on stuff at home that you didn't get done earlier.  It is a day to enjoy a good book or visit family and friends.  It is a day to work on a favorite hobby. It is a day to simply take your mind off of worries and work and, instead, rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.

The problem for me is scheduling. I procrastinate and I think I do it because I haven't scheduled any down time for myself.  When I have that time scheduled, I am less inclined to put off things I need to do.  It takes practice, however. It also takes setting boundaries.  If it's a sabbath day for me, I don't answer the phone or emails for school question, church questions, and the like.  I can usually tell by the person calling or emailing.  I screen calls closely on my sabbath.  I have had to set these expectations with people and often times they aren't happy about it.  Often the problem is that my sabbath day doesn't coincide with theirs.  It can be frustrating but if you can set aside one day each week for sabbath and communicate that information, then you can get past the frustration in time. 

I write all of this to suggest two things. First is that you need to make sure you have a sabbath day, a day you use for rest and rejuvenation. Take time to be grateful for all the little things along with the big things. 

Secondly, you recognize that your pastor also has a sabbath day which isn't Sunday. Respect their time, please. They are already going to work at home and much more than the 40 hours expected. If your pastor has office hours, use those hours to contact them.  This is not to say that if there is an emergency, don't call your pastor. Please do call them.  Please do keep your pastor in the loop especially regarding hospitalizations.

Be blessed and enjoy your day of rest...

Five things...

In this season of Thanksgiving we pastors are thinking and preparing for the Advent season. Advent is a time of expectant waiting for the coming of Christ.  There are only two Sundays between now and the beginning of Advent and I'm thinking, searching and working on sermons, Advent wreath liturgies, selecting hymns and carols, etc. 

Our challenge today is to consider 5 things about Advent and then blog about them. This is a great exercise to stop and take time to savor the memories of Christmases past as well as reconnect with the idea of the coming celebration of the birth of our savior.  Here is my list.

1.  Oranges. I know that may sound weird, but I think of oranges when Christmas rolls around.  My family was a poor family and so we didn't get a lot of the "exotic" fruits. This means that we didn't get fruit that we didn't grow. We did have plenty of strawberries, blackberries, plums, apples, and the like.  Oranges were a special treat. I knew that on Christmas morning I would find an orange in my stocking. I also knew that mom would make that wonderful cranberry orange relish I loved.

2.  The tree.  We lived on a farm and never had an artificial tree. We also never bought a real one.  Each Advent season my father would go out and find a tree on the farm, cut it and bring it home.  I went with him a couple of times and I wish now that I had taken the opportunity to go every time.  This means that we would always have a tree with a "bad side."  I remember turning and decorating and turning and trimming branches and turning that tree until we had at least disguised the bad side.  But the air was fragrant with cedar and the lights were pretty and together we had accomplished something.

3. I didn't grow up in a religious family. We went to church when I was very young but we didn't do it regularly.  By the time my brother was born, we didn't go at all.  Christmas became a time for me to think about decorations and making things pretty. It was a time when I got presents. It was also a time when we sang Christmas Carols at school and performed for our parents.  We watched all the favorite Christmas shows on TV. I would study the Sears & Roebuck Christmas catalog and imagine what I would do if only I had THAT toy.

4.  Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.  These are the things I think about now when Advent comes around each year.  Hope for the coming Kingdom of God through Jesus.  Love for those who feel unloved as well as the Love of God that encourages and edifies. Joy at the knowledge that even in the chaos, I can be sure there is a plan. Even in the struggles, God is working to make things anew. Peace in knowing that I don't have to carry the burden alone.  Knowing that in Christian fellowship, we carry the burden together. Knowing that God is ready to carry our burden if we would just allow it.

5. Oranges. The fragrance. The little bit of spray when peeling them. The juice and flavors exploding in my mouth.  The fresh feeling that these things inspire remind me that Jesus makes all things new.  Christ is coming to revive our spirits and make the world anew. I wait in joyful, hopeful, peaceful and loving expectation while I sit and sip my fresh squeezed orange juice.

November Snow in Memphis

I was busy at the VA last night and so I missed a couple of things.  First, I didn't a post in yesterday - I'll catch up shortly.  Second, it snowed last night in Memphis!  Really, it did!  In fact it created such a mess of traffic on the bridges that a friend said he entered West Memphis, AR at 7:45am and didn't get to the Seminary until 10:40. 

Want to see how bad it was?  I took a photo just so I could have proof that it did snow in Memphis.  Here you go:

Yep, that's it, the layer of snow on my bumper.  If you look to the right you can see that there is nothing on the ground.  In fact, here's a picture I took about 20 minutes later:

See - most of the trees haven't even turned yet!

While cold, it was a pretty day. This is a weird year for weather, my friends.  Can't wait to see what happens next!

Veteran's day

The American Red Cross, Mid-South Chapter publishes a booklet for use by veterans in Memphis and distributed by the VA Hospital. This is a picture of the front cover: 

On this Veteran's Day I am thinking about the men and women I meet on my rounds as a Chaplain Intern at the VA. I'm also thinking about the men and women who are experiencing homelessness.  Over the last couple of years, I've not been able to work with these wonderful people. Between my schedule and my health, it just hasn't been something I could do.  I do support both local and non-local organizations who provide food, shelter, clothing, showers and, most importantly, friendship and hospitality to those who are unsheltered and/or poor.  There are some great organizations here in Memphis and across the country.

If you do nothing else this year, find a way to support efforts to care for our brothers and sisters sleeping on the streets. 

We want to take this:

 And turn it into this:

Relationships are the key. Your support is needed. Your efforts are appreciated.

Thankfulness - a season before Christmas.

I'm joined in the blogging challenge by several other wonderful women who are part of a community calling themselves RevGalBlogPals.  You can see the graphic over on the right.  One of these women wrote a beautiful reflection on gratitude today.  You can read it here:

http://sarahbuildsbridges.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/sneaky-gratitude/

I must admit that in the excitement of planning for the advent season (which starts in three weeks!), I have been allowing this season of Thanksgiving here in the US to get away from me.  Between getting everything together for All Saints Day and searching for Advent Liturgies - I've forgotten this important time.

I've not forgotten to be grateful. Some of you know my harrowing story of the cruise control with a mind of its own. I'm grateful that it wasn't worse and that I was able to think clearly enough to get the car home (180 miles).  Oh yes, I'm grateful.  But am I slowing down long enough to really feel the gratitude and express it to God?  Am I just saying words while I'm also loading the washer? Am I really taking the time to focus on my spiritual and prayer life.  I'm sad to say the answer is no.

I thought about writing that I was ashamed to say no but I changed my mind.  I know that God doesn't want me to be ashamed, God wants me to do better. Getting caught up in the self-recrimination is, simply put, self-centered.  It disguises and distorts my sincere feelings of gratitude.

So - here's what I'm going to do.  I'm setting aside 15 minutes each and every day to just sit silently and be grateful.  I don't have to name everything I'm grateful for, I just need to be grateful.  This is about acknowledging the gifts I have been given and recognizing the source of those gifts is God.

What do you do to express your gratitude to others and to God?

Bridges to the Heartland

The NaBloPoMo challenge for the RevGals today is "Post a photo of what you can see out a window- any window. What do you notice in the picture that you didn't just looking out?"

This is a picture I took this summer on my way home from church. There is a beautiful old metal bridge that crosses from woodlands into farmland. 

I was attempting to take a picture of the quaint little clock tower but I missed it.  It's behind the vertical bar.  What's interesting and most attractive to me about this picture is the reflection in the mirror.  I also like the unintended inclusion of the water below the bridge. It is almost a story from where I've been to where I'm going.  This was a bright and hot August day. The surrounding countryside is filled with icons. The river feeds the rich Arkansas valley and much of our agricultural abundance comes from beautiful locations such as this.  The nostalgic feeling of the bridge took me back to my own childhood.

Just above the mirror is a huge grain silo.  This is a common sight on this 175 mile drive. In the spring I get to watch the new planting and growth and throughout the summer and into the fall I get to watch the ripening and harvest.  175 miles long and as far as the eye can see to the left and to the right is filled with food. The primary crops are corn, rice, soybean and sorghum. What really confuses me is that the majority of these crops aren't grown for human consumption, they are used for livestock and other animal foods (dog and cat).  I think about the pictures of the very poor in India and Africa and I wonder at their reaction to these miles upon miles of food that, well, we feed to animals.  I keep having this vision of a mother holding her starving child standing in the middle of one of these fields and crying at the bounty before her. It brings me to tears every time I think about it.

I've been seeing cotton fields lately that have been harvested. The large bales of cotton are sitting in the fields. Yet I can see cotton on all the plants still.  Is this just what the machines can't get? Is it just wasted?  Is this what happens to the corn, rice, soybean and sorghum fields?

There is no reason for anyone in this world to go hungry. God made our planet in such a way as to provide sufficient resources for it to continue. There are sufficient resources for everyone to have enough food to eat.  It is our sinfulness, our brokenness, our greed that hoards these foods. It is our system of government worldwide that keeps food from reaching those who need it most. It is our culture that would rather talk about same gender couples than the fact that people starve to death in this world every day. It's our lack of discipleship that insists people are on hard times simply because they didn't try enough. It is our shame that we don't share everything with those who need it.

Because God is GOD!

Have you ever really thought about God's power?  We talk about how God created the earth and the heavens. We talk about how God can cure any ailment. We talk about God interceding in our lives to bring comfort, heal, find a spouse for us, et cetera. What I think we're missing here is a better understanding of God's awesome power. Ancient peoples ascribed eclipses, earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters to God's direct intervention and were humbled by the power exhibited. We understand now how these things happen as a result of planetary movements, plate tectonics and shifting air currents. We've lost the mystery and sense of the immensity of God's great power because we have come to understand a very small part of this thing God created which we call the universe.

Science Fiction stories with warp speed or some other faster than light travel make us think of easily getting from one planet to another. There is no sense of the vast space that must be traversed.  There is no real sense of the scale of the solar system, let alone the universe.  If we take a ball 16 inches in diameter and use it as a scale model of the sun, then Pluto is less than 0.03 inches in diameter and located over a mile away.  That's how big our solar system is.

How do each of the planets compare? How does our sun compare?  Here's a great video that shows size comparisons: 

Now, given all that, can you imagine not bowing down in awe of the one who created it all?  How is it that we, tiny little specks in the solar system, let alone the universe, are important to God?  Why isn't God more important to us? 

We should worship God not because we want eternal life or in fear of some punishment - we should worship God because...well...God is GOD!

A Prayer Bracelet I designed several years ago.

Throughout the ages prayer beads have been used to help focus thoughts during prayer.  The most commonly used is the Catholic Rosary, although there are Protestant and other ecumenical prayer bead sets.  Most prayer beads, however, assign a phrase or proscribed prayer for each bead.  The user is to memorize this phrase and repeat it every time the prayer beads are used.  This Prayer Bracelet is different.  Each bead represents a topic on which to meditate and pray.  Each prayer will be unique.  It is my hope, that this Prayer Bracelet will help you to focus your thoughts and bring you closer to God through an enriched prayer life. Using wooden beads, semi-precious or ceramic beads large beads, smaller filler beads and stretchy cord, fashion a prayer bracelet in the format shown below.  Figure out what size you need to make your bracelet and layout the design first. Once you have a group of beads evenly spaced out and filler beads placed between each of the larger beads, join the two ends by tying them together and adding a dot of glue. I recommend E6000. If you use wooden beads with large holes, you can hide the knot and glue inside the hole of the wooden bead.  Please read the symbolism below before you shop for supplies so that you can get an idea of what you might want for your prayer bracelet.  I'll try to get some pictures posted over the next few weeks so you can see examples.

·         Wooden Bead

o    Symbolizes the Cross on which Christ died for our sins and offers our salvation.

o    Is the beginning of the prayer and the end, as God is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end.

·         Beads 1 through 5

o    Semi-precious stones or ceramic beads to remind us to stay grounded.

o    A tribute to this marvelous creation by God that we call earth and a reminder that we are to be good stewards of the Earth and its resources.

·         Spaces between large beads

o    Reminds us to pause and be still so that we may hear God’s voice speaking to us.

·         Circular

o    Symbolizes the circle of life.

o    Reminds us that we are all interconnected through Christ.

·         Stretchy

o    Reminds us to remain flexible so that we are able to answer God’s call when it comes to us.

·         Usage

o    Begin at the wooden bead recognize its symbolism and ask God to open your mind and heart so that you might hear God’s instructions.

o    Pause and be still for a few seconds or as long as feels appropriate for you.

o    Bead 1 – Give thanks for the things that have happened to you that day.  This helps us to be on the lookout for the positive things in our lives every day.

o    Pause

o    Bead 2 – Pray for the Church.  Your individual church, your denomination and the body of Christ as a whole.

o    Pause

o    Bead 3 – Ask forgiveness for things that you have done whether consciously or unconsciously throughout that day that were not pleasing to God. Ask to be given wisdom to learn from those times.  Forgive yourself for not being perfect. Ask God to help you forgive others.

o    Pause

o    Bead 4 – Lift up those people who are on your prayer list. 

o    Pause

o    Bead 5 – Pray for the things that you need in your life to become better Christians.  This could be health, direction in career, financial peace or emotional needs.  Pray for strength, peace and guidance.

o    Pause

o    Back to the wooden bead – rededicate your life to Christ and offer yourself as a tool for God to use for His glory. 

o    Amen

Copyright 2008, Shirley Ostrander