Category: Uncategorized

Winter

Throughout Lent, I am writing a poem a day. Here you go…

Clouds swaddled the sun
One winter day –
Keeping Hope in the shadows
Not too long, I pray.

Snow blanketed the earth
Silently falling –
Though the world was still
I heard God calling…
Me
…to trust…to love…to give.

Poetry

Sometimes I decide to give something up for Lent or to add something during this time of intentional personal reflection and prayer. This season of Lent, I will be writing a poem a day. I thought I would share this one…

I opened my eyes…
To the sun streaming through the blinds,
Spilling ‘cross the room and into my mind,
Breathing the first breaths of a new day undefined.

I opened my eyes…
To a wide world not already knowing,
The gifts that God has been bestowing,
Upon those whose faith had started growing.

I opened my eyes…
To a place with no ways of anguish or pain,
Where people lived with no hate or disdain,
Where love and kindness and grace sustained.

I opened my eyes…
Thankful…
Hopeful…
Prayerful…

St. Thomas UCC, Bethlehem worship 022121 –

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iixeq8HwFykd4of9dhtf3a4eAflyHe11/view?usp=sharing

Love

Love and kindness should always be shared.

St, Thomas UCC, Bethlehem worship 02-14-21

https://dl-mail.ymail.com/ws/download/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-b_nOV6vg1vU6RKfz3vNZ3sfZeTqM6b1PpyZ0ST1Ru2iybVNqp-u2r99WE78tdFoY4QS589m2ULn4HOf3kMCF_g/messages/@.id==AMo1ODEPfwVgYClNTQyO2Dytld4/content/parts/@.id==2/raw?appid=YMailNorrinLaunch&ymreqid=8eb7c876-4ed0-0b66-1c9a-730000018e00&token=zitEzqOML3j84e6ealFTT5U7-km5qEQF52lp7AcCuBY2XdcPQs8GpeVWa0seciuY98Erioidonc0OFltVpcW9E7zg4ijmOZd26vC3t2Td_XoXrvqWXAmKM0cYz1HHvee

Remembering…

Today marks 4 years since my vision loss. I recall that day vividly. It was one of the best days of my life. Just a lot of little things on the journey that day that made it so. Initially, the vision loss devastated my heart and soul; but I am beyond that now. While I grieve the loss of the many things I loved to do, I have gained back much more in new ways since then.

As Helen Keller put it: I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is dispair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;  

 O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.  

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  

St. Thomas UCC, Bethlehem worship Jan. 24, 2021 –

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Em7i6uMzv8t348pR_cxeGLDGVlKUK-KR/view?usp=sharing

Take a moment

Maybe you spent the day in service to others. Maybe since you had off from work, you took time to spend with your family or went for a hike or maybe you unplugged and just chilled, All good things. With the sunshine casting its light across the landscape today, there was lots of blue sky for us to enjoy. Now, I invite you to pause, to take some time to pray for our country, our churches, our families. I share this payer from Martin Luther King, Jr. : “O God, make us willing to do your will, come what may. Increase the number of persons of good will and moral sensitivity. Give us renewed confidence in nonviolence and the way of love as taught by Christ. Amen.”