Feb. 26, 2013

Hello!  Hope all is well!

Today’s scripture: Psalm 105:1-15  The Message 

Thank God! Pray to him by name!
Tell everyone you meet what he has done!
Sing him songs, belt out hymns,
translate his wonders into music!
Honor his holy name with Hallelujahs,
you who seek God. Live a happy life!
Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works;
be alert for signs of his presence.
Remember the world of wonders he has made,
his miracles, and the verdicts he’s rendered—
O seed of Abraham, his servant,
O child of Jacob, his chosen.

He’s God, our God,
in charge of the whole earth.
And he remembers, remembers his Covenant—
for a thousand generations he’s been as good as his word.
It’s the Covenant he made with Abraham,
the same oath he swore to Isaac,
The very statute he established with Jacob,
the eternal Covenant with Israel,
Namely, “I give you the land.
Canaan is your hill-country inheritance.”
When they didn’t count for much,
a mere handful, and strangers at that,
Wandering from country to country,
drifting from pillar to post,
He permitted no one to abuse them.
He told kings to keep their hands off:
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on my anointed,
don’t hurt a hair on the heads of my prophets.”

This morning I got up with two little creatures on me.  They were all cuddled in..cat and chihuahua.  I wandered into the kitchen to get my coffee and turn up the heat just a smidge. I opened my computer.  I had slept well all night after a lovely day yesterday visiting with people and catching up with the office and with my email.  I opened up the computer this morning and check email and facebook…seeing what is up with the world.  A video jumped out at me this morning posted by someone at the CoOp.  It was sweet…well, I will even give you the link….
I was delighted with this video…getting to know people. Love the idea. I started brainstorming about how the church might use this….
Then I started thinking about the recent vacation in Colorado and just the many lovely moments. The many moments I am so grateful for…visiting family, hanging out with people, checking out an awesome coffeeshop that is also a ministry, learning from a New Belgium tour about community, knowing that the church back home is eager for me to take a break and will welcome me back.
Then I opened up today’s scripture and the Psalm leapt out at me because it is about gratitude. I realized then that I couldn’t help but be grateful for this moment, this day, right now.  Yesterday I challenged us to go into Samaria and today’s challenge is about stepping back and taking a moment of gratitude.  God has made a covenant with us that God will be there…in the hard stuff, in the pain that we talked about on Sunday, in the moments when we don’t see God there and in these moments of thankfulness.  Even if today has offered challenge already…the kids didn’t sleep well, you are feeling frantic, you are feeling lost, you are realizing that it’s just Tuesday and not Thursday like you were hoping….take this moment…
Take a deep breath…
Think of one thing that makes you smile…
and just say thanks….
Anne Lamott recently wrote a book called, “Help. Thanks. Wow.” She says that these are the three prayers that make up our prayer life. She says about thanks, “Thanks is the prayer of relief that help was on the way. … It can be [the] pettiest, dumbest thing, but it could also be that you get the phone call that the diagnosis was much, much, much better than you had been fearing. … The full prayer, and its entirety, is: Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. But for reasons of brevity, I just refer to it as Thanks.”
 
So today here is your prayer, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.” Amen.

 

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