A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. Proverbs 17:22

We, as a world, just recently crossed the 1-year threshold of the pandemic. It has definitely been a challenging year and we aren’t done yet, but we are getting closer. It is easy to look at the negative things about this pandemic and get caught up in the pessimism but that can be tiring and cumbersome.   Throughout this past year I have tried, sometimes more successfully than others, to look at the positive. That has helped me to recognize the God moments.

So, as I reflected on the past year I started thinking about the negative comments that have consumed our conversations, social media and our news. I decided to see if I could turn the negative into a positive. We can say schools have been closed for a year but just like our church hasn’t “closed” neither have the schools. I see God with all the teachers who have gone above and beyond to make sure that school is still happening, and learning is still taking place while keeping children as safe as possible. We can look at masks as awkward, uncomfortable and a complete annoyance or we can remember that masks keep everyone safer. Those that have been blessed with God’s gift of creativity went to work and began sewing millions of masks and giving them away. Masks have now evolved as a way to support our favorite sport team, the causes we feel passionate about and for the fashionably conscious they have become an accessory to our outfit. We can get caught up in how slow the vaccine is rolling out and in the confusion about when it’s your turn and how we even get in line or we can thank God for the wisdom that God has given those creating the vaccines we now have access to and for the many people who have volunteered to help with distributing them. 

Finding the positive has helped me to see that God has been with us this entire time.  This pandemic hasn’t been easy, but God hasn’t promised that life was going to be easy. God has promised to be with us in the easy and hard times, the good and the bad times, the happy and sad times.  As we are getting closer to moving out of the pandemic tunnel we may feel joy, anxiety, and concern but we can find comfort in the fact that no matter where we are or how we are feeling God will be with us there too.

Gracious and loving God, it can be easy to get bogged down with pessimism which is a bummer because  then we miss your presence.  We ask for your help to stay positive so that we can be aware of the  God moments. We give thanks for all the people who have brought us joy and comfort and have shared their gifts with all of us.  Amen

Marty

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

This scripture has been going through my mind and heart a lot lately. Our youngest, Ryan who is 26, is moving back to St. Petersburg Florida. He went to college there and has been wanting to go back to make his life there ever since he came back home to California. He has worked here at a couple of jobs, however not full time or not in his chosen field of Marine Science. While he doesn’t have a job back in Florida that he is going to, there have been openings that he would be perfect for but seeing California on the application has not been helping him get a job in Florida, so off he goes with a good amount of savings, and hope.

Ryan is stepping out on faith in a way that boggles my mind, worries, and makes me proud of him all at the same time. He believes that he is called to make the world a better place by helping us take care of our oceans and marine life. He trusts that God has put that call on his heart for a reason and is going for it. We can learn a lot from our children, even when they are adults.

We are so blessed to be in relationship with God. A God who loves us so much that he gave his own life up to show how much he loves us. During this time of Lent when we focus on what Jesus went through to try to get us to understand the true nature of God, it is so important to remember that all those events happened because we didn’t get what Jesus was trying to show us and God loved us anyway. The idea that God, who created the vast universe; created us, knows us, loves us, and wants us to thrive in life is utterly amazing, awe inspiring and humbling. As we approach Holy Week, we need to remember that Jesus went through all that to show us the love that God has for us. Our God has plans for our world and our lives and those plans include us working together to help bring God’s kingdom here on earth. Something that we say every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer. During this season of Lent let us take the time to listen to God and to try to discern it the way we are trying to go is God’s way or our way. Let us try to align with nature of God grace and love, that Jesus tried to teach us about while he was physically here.

Blessings,
Suzanne

Gracious & Loving God, We are so blessed to be called your children. Create in us a heart that the courage to trust in you and listen to your will for our lives. Help us to realize that we need you in our lives to save us from ourselves and humanities selfish tendencies. Create in us a clean heart and renew our spirits that we might live more fully into your plan for our lives and for our future.

Amen

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

After signing off of Zoom Messy Church, I am sitting down to write this daily blessing and am remembering that tonight marks one year since we moved Messy Church online. Everything closed down two days before our March 2020 Messy Church was supposed to happen.  We cancelled that month after prepping and planning for 100 people that included a lot of activities and a meal.  At that point Marty and I knew we would need an alternative plan for the next couple of months…maybe even until the summer (haha)… to help stay connected with our Messy Friends.  We worried about how we were going to take this hands-on ministry, whose foundation is based on relationships and connection, and make it work online.

One of the blessings of Messy Church is that it is adaptable. Even when we were meeting in person, we were always assessing and evolving. Messy Church in 2013 looked a lot different than Messy Church in 2019.  It’s been no different for online Messy Church.  Tonight did not look like our online Messy Church a year ago.  The first few months, we were learning and experimenting.  We gave out supplies to do the activities at home and then met online for a celebration, or worship time. One of our young Messy Church friends commented early on that they liked Messy Church online but it didn’t feel like Messy Church because we weren’t doing activities together.  So, we decided to try doing crafts together, and it was wonderful.  That comment helped us stretch and eventually we made an intentional decision to work towards incorporating all the elements of Messy Church (welcome time, activity time, celebration time, and meal) and all the values (Hospitality, Christ-centered, Celebration, Creativity and All-ages) into our online Messy Church. 

The structure and values have helped make online Messy Church feel like in-person Messy Church but the real blessing of Messy Church, even online, is what it has always been…the connections, the relationships, the growing in faith together and, of course, the messiness.  This past year, we’ve had people join us at Messy Church that have never been or have only come a few times, and they are regular attendees now.  We’ve had parents log on and join us because their kids were sleeping and they wanted to take notes so they could do the activities together with their kids later.  We’ve had people offering ideas, asking to help in any way they can and we’ve even had parents and youth leading activities.  We’ve watched our food team shine hospitality by putting together and delivering craft bags and pizza’s to the homes of the people joining us that night.  Tonight we heard friends, both young and old, checking in on each other and having conversations with friends they’ve only known at Messy Church online.  In some ways, because we are doing all the activities together at the same time, our group has been able to connect and grow together even more online than we can in-person. 

It feels as though God has been leading this exciting journey.  We often hear that Messy Church is a blessing to our Messy Friends, but it’s also been a blessing to all of us on the planning team, to those leading activities and definitely to me.  Since day one, it has felt as if God is working in and through this ministry.  Every time a challenge or obstacle has arisen a solution has closely followed.  We only have to ask and pray and God along with this congregation show us where to go next.  We’ve grown with each other through this year and while we couldn’t imagine Messy Church online last March, tonight it felt like the natural way to do it as we baked pretzels, made cactus’ out of playdough, and created a wilderness scene with reflection questions while exploring the season of Lent.  

Dear loving and gracious, God.  Today, we give thanks for the opportunity to do your work through the creative ministry of Messy Church.  We ask that you continue to lead all of us in new directions and help us to remember that when we are faced with challenges we can ask for your guidance and trust that you will be there to open doors and to lead us in the direction you would have us go.  Amen

Leyla