“O Lord, You have explored my heart and know exactly who I am; You even know the small details like when I take a seat and when I stand up again. Even when I am far away, You know what I’m thinking.  You observe my wanderings and my sleeping, my waking and my dreaming,and You know everything I do in more detail than even I know. You know what I’m going to say long before I say it.It is true, O Lord, that You know everything and everyone. You have surrounded me on every side, (framed in) behind me and before me, and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder. It is the most amazing feeling to know how deeply You know me, inside and out;the realization of it is so great that I cannot comprehend it.”  Psalm 139:1-6 The Voice

Although we are still socially distancing some shops are finding their way to reopen safely. My girlfriend and I have a favorite little antique/thrift store in Long Beach that we like to frequent about once a month. I have been on a search for small pieces of artwork. Watercolors are my favorite but I happened to find this lovely acrylic painting on canvas without a frame. It reminded me of Tuscany, Italy, with golden rolling hills and lavender. So of course I bought it! Now the adventure begins to find the perfect frame.

Finding the right frame is all important to enhancing the beauty of the artwork. You can put many different types and color of frames on the same piece but only the right one will make the artwork come alive. The right framing will make you feel like you are there in the picture seeing what the artist is seeing in their minds eye. Adding a color matte to draw out certain colors in the artwork is also very important to capturing the fullness of the beauty in the piece.

Well, as I was pondering all these things for this one piece of art I began thinking how our lives are God’s artwork and that Christ is the One who frames us. God is the artisan who moved the brush, dipped it in the colors of creation and brushed our lives into being. Each piece of artwork is quite unique with it’s own character, color-filled and comes in many different shapes and sizes. Most of us are one of a kind but many have duplicates, and because of the uniqueness of the Master’s brushstrokes all are priceless.

The artwork of our life is enhanced by great beauty when we are framed by Jesus’ teachings of love, forgiveness, humility, caring, healing, and giving of ourselves to a world that can be lacking of such beauty. Jesus is the perfect frame for each of us and it’s the Holy Spirit that causes us to see the unique gifts and talents, the swirling colors, the image, and the vision of great beauty in each of us. May you always know of your great worth for you are God’s Beloved.

“For You shaped me, inside and out. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath. I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe. You have approached even the smallest details with excellence; Your works are wonderful; I carry this knowledge deep within my soul. You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You as I took shape in secret, carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.” Psalm 139:13-15 The Voice

Loving Creator, may our hearts always be opened in receiving your love and believing we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the essence of your love and beauty. Amen.
Brenda

“I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see.” – John Newton, “Amazing Grace”

“… ‘Till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love and praise!” – Charles Wesley, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”

At various times churches have attempted marketing schemes and slogans. Like many of you, I am quite fond of “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,” and I look forward to the time when our doors will again be open for all to enter and engage in study, worship and fellowship in preparation for service and witness in the world.

Years ago there was the bumper sticker which said, “I found it!” with a cross. Of course that led to the perfect response: A Star of David with the motto “We never lost it!” More recently I have seen stickers and memes for the un-churched stating “Not all who wander are lost.”

In truth, we all need to wander to be able to discover. We sometimes need to get lost to find something new, or to find ourselves. All too often, just when we think we are exactly the right path, we discover that we have been lost all along. And it is in losing our selfishness that we live God’s grace.

This is the value of the place apart from the regular world. This is the importance of Sabbath – a time set apart. This is the gift of camps, retreats, and wilderness wandering.

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus goes off to pray. He goes away to remember and reaffirm who he is. His ministry is bookended by his contending with Satan in the wilderness, and contending with God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane. During Lent, we take a journey with Jesus through the wilderness and to the cross.

This Sunday in worship we will talk about that wandering, and of Jesus’ obedience to the divine purpose.

This Saturday, at our Upside-Down Church on Zoom at 5:00 we will talk about getting away to discover who we are; and how to do that in a time of pandemic! Our guest will be Kimmie Stradling, who has been a camping professional and is now a “professional camper.”

I pray that this time of Lent will be a time apart, even in the midst of continued restrictions and what has become mundane isolation. I pray that for you this will be a time to rediscover God’s strength, grace, mercy, and love. And so that you may find that, I say with the deepest affection, I hope you will find a way to… get lost!

Let us lose ourselves in you O God. When it is too much for us to bear, let us lose ourselves in your strength. When we are trying too hard to do it all, let us lose ourselves In your peace. When we are overwhelmed by loneliness, let us lose ourselves in your presence. When we have lost our way, let us find ourselves in you. When we are wondering and wandering, let us catch glimpses of Christ in the wilderness, and may your gentle smile let us feel your joy of discovery. We pray this with Jesus. Amen.

Questions for Sunday:

1. What are you more likely to believe, good news or bad news? Why?
2. Why is Jesus’ anguish and obedience important to you?
3. What must you do today to be obedient to God / true to yourself?

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25

During the beginning of the pandemic Pastor George had an idea that the staff would write daily blessings to help keep our church family inspired and connected during this unusual time.  After several months of having them 5 days a week we went down to 3 days a week to not overwhelm people with emails, since this went on way longer than we anticipated that it would.  We were pretty naïve back then as to how this would all play out way back last March.

It has been a good journey writing these blessings for they have help me to see the positive and good during such a stressful time.  However, I have really enjoyed reading all the blessings and getting to learn more about our staff and church family here at CUMC.  I can usually tell who wrote which Daily Blessing by the first couple of lines.  We all have our own unique style of writing and perspective.  I have been amazed at the insight and timeliness of our Daily Blessings.  All our writers have touched me in a deep way, and many times their words have been what I needed to read that day.  It is funny how God works isn’t it.  I have also been blessed by the response that I have received from church family on my writings. 

These writings have helped us to grow in our faith and in our connections with each other.  I have learned things about Brenda, James, Emalee, and all the staff that I would have not known had we not been writing these articles.  I have also heard from many of you have touched you have been by their words and how wonderful it is to get to know them better from their writings.  Our Daily Blessings have truly connected us on a deeper level than we were connected before.

So even as we are still not seeing each other in person as much as we have before, we are learning about each other in deeper ways and that has been a very special blessing during this difficult time. As some of us begin to feel more comfortable going out, in a safe way, we need to remember that there were some good practices that came out of our lockdown that we need to keep in our practices moving forward.  Sharing our faith, inspiring and blessing others is one of those practices we all need to do everyday day in every way we can.

Gracious and Loving God, open our eyes and hearts to the blessings that we are surrounded with everyday day and take for granted.  Give us a voice to be able to bless others by our service and our words.  We are so thankful for all the folks that have helped us get through this difficult time and we are thankful for you who has been with us through all this and more.  We see your fingerprints all over the helpers, help us to show that we have your fingerprints on us too.

Amen

Stay safe, stay well and be the hope you wish to see in the world,  Suzanne

Psalm 22:4 – In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.

“Your brain is just in overdrive.” That’s what a cardiologist recently told me when I was referred for repeated fainting incidents and other weird symptoms. The good news was that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my heart.

The troubling news, though, was that two pretty critical parts of my body seemed to be in conflict with each other. My brain had decided that I was over-stressed, over-tired, and over-troubled; so it was sending signals to calm my body down. Meanwhile, my heart was humming along perfectly well, so those signals actually caused more trouble than good.

How often do the brain and the heart seem to want different things? Sure, I’m experiencing a rare physical manifestation of this; but, if you’re anything like me, this happens emotionally more often than we’d like to admit.

Your brain says that you need to stay in the logical, solid, income producing job that you’ve had for years; but your heart says it’s time to take a leap and try something else.

Your brain says you should probably have a nice vegetable quiche for dinner, but your heart says you’ve had a rough day and a chocolate cookie dough shake would really hit the spot.

Your brain says that it’s not time for your family to get a puppy because you have two small children running around all the time, but your heart says that a furry companion would be a fun addition to your chaos.

Your brain says that you should stay isolated for just a little bit longer to clear the pandemic, but your heart wants more than anything to go give your best friend a hug.

How do you get the brain and the heart on the same page? Sure, we can go with the cliché, simply trust God. 100% agree. Now, how do you put that into practice? How many of you have prayed, “I trust you God. Could you please give me a sign of the path you want me on?” I firmly believe that He is holding the steering wheel of my journey through life, but wouldn’t it help if gave a map? I’m not talking about the metaphor-filled map of the Bible, either. I mean one that tells me what I’m supposed to do to be successful tomorrow.

In all honesty, I have no good advice on how to seek this connection between brain and heart. After all, my brain is certifiably in overdrive, but I thought it might be helpful to at least a few of you to know that there are others out there like you. Perhaps, together, we can figure it out, and gain a bit more peace and trust in God.

Lord, Our brains are in overdrive. Please help us to trust. Please help us to find others seeking that connection between brain and heart and honor you as that link. Amen.

“Who has believed what we have heard?
   And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
   and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him of no account.”
Isaiah 53:1-3

In September, 1986 the Des Plaines River flooded. Actually it flooded twice in two years. I was a student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, with a field education assignment at the Des Plaines Church. The pastoral staff of the church went out to the homes of church members to bring both spiritual and practical assistance. At many homes we were directed to the home of a neighbor who “had it worse than me.” At the other homes no one was present because the resident had left to assist their neighbors.

I realized that the most compassionate people were those who themselves were struggling. Empathy comes not from ease, but from hardship. Ease and privilege often result in apathy or disdain for those less fortunate. That’s not the way it is supposed to be. And yet when someone who has been successful engages in philanthropy they are accused of base motives, such as trying to assuage their guilt, or to buy popularity. This is because those in relative ease try to justify their lack of empathy and selfishness by questioning the motives or intelligence of the good.  In popular culture being good is made bad, or foolish, or encouraging of bad behavior. (You can ask Niki and Michael about this. They were literally yelled at for tending to a person experiencing homelessness!)

The scripture passage above is the prophecy of the “Suffering Servant” which Christians view as foretelling and describing Jesus. The Messiah comes to us not in glory to dictate from on high, but as one of us, able to know what it is to be like us. Jesus comes to us in our dire situation. He knows pain, and rejection, and is “acquainted with infirmity.”  Because of this, he can bear our grief and help us in our struggle.

And, bringing new life, he invites us to meet others where they are. Even as we ourselves are struggling, we can reach out to others. In fact, this reaching out affirms that God is at work in us. Jesus invites us to be suffering servants and wounded healers. When we are humbled, God lifts us through joyous outreach.

Right now, around the world, just about everyone is struggling with the pandemic and its effects.  On top of that, much of our nation is dealing with bitter cold. Our friends in Texas seem to have it the worst.

I invite you to affirm the work that God is doing in you and through you – even as we struggle with our isolation and the burdens of pandemic life – by reaching out in prayer, comfort, and service to the people of Texas. The United Methodist Committee on Relief is already there. You can participate in the work of UMCOR by making a donation through the Church. Whether you give by check, envelope, or electronically, just note that the gift is to go to UMCOR or “Texas Aid” and we will make sure it goes to that – 100% (Your regular giving to the church pays all the overhead and fundraising expenses).

Thank you, Jesus for meeting us where we are. Thank you for bringing us to yourself. Thank you for working is us to heal others even as we are being healed.  Please, Jesus, bring strength and hope, light and warmth, to the hurting people of Texas, our nation, and the world. Amen.

Your questions for Sunday:

1. What does it mean to have death pass over you?
2. What are the differences between an outward and an inward covenant?
3. How can you prepare yourself to honor your covenant with God?