Our June fellowship meal (taco-bar) is tonight, Wednesday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. Below is the summer Wednesday schedule!
July's midweek meal will be July 16.
Our August gathering will be Sunday, August 17 (details below).
Save the date!
Our August gathering will be held at the Deep Creek Pavilion on Sunday, August 17,
from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join in the fun!
We will restart our WEEKLY meals on Wednesday, September 3
(which is the Wednesday following Labor Day).
“We are hardwired to connect with others; it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.”
—Brené Brown
What is saving my life right now? To be honest, technology is saving my life. To be more specific, the ability to communicate with and through technology.
Right now, I am thousands and thousands of miles away from my family and long-term friends. The ability to talk with them as much as possible is a constant blessing in my life. The ability to share updates from my life and hear all about theirs keeps me going when I am missing them. The ability to share all my emotions from afar is needed. From a simple text or voice note on WhatsApp to a Zoom call that lasts hours, they all make me happy and keep me going. Sharing a happy moment from my day lifts my spirits more than I can say. Venting about stressful or sad days encourages me to not keep the hard parts of life to myself.
Along with keeping up with my forever friends and family, technology also gives me the ability to connect and meet new people here in my new place of work. It creates the opportunity to share pictures, articles, ideas and resources from so many people. Everyone knows how frustrating or mind-numbing technology can be at times. But I am forever grateful for how it keeps me connected to the people I need in my life.
Pray, Practice, Ponder
The practice of reaching out or staying in touch takes effort in our fast-paced, information-crazed world. To develop life-giving bonds, we must prioritize connection.
How do you practice staying connected to systems of support—family and friends near and far. Do you think this can be seen not just as a relational practice, but as a spiritual one?
United Christian Ministries is in need of spaghetti sauce and pasta.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
United Christian Ministries is in need of spaghetti sauce and pasta.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
“If you work with your hands, sabbath with your mind. If you work with your mind, sabbath with your hands.”
—Rabbi Abraham Heschel
What is saving my life right now is doing yard work and a surprising source of inspiration from an app. My yard is huge with fruit trees, flowers, garden plots and tons of bougainvillea. Without copious amounts of raking, pruning, weeding, (did I mention raking?), it rapidly turns into jungle. Working with my hands, being able to see the tangible results of my work is satisfying. But more satisfying and astonishing is the peace in being reminded that God is in control and that things are growing and blooming and maturing beautifully despite anything else going on in my life that feels discouraging or disappointing.
Nature doesn’t need me to make it happen. It’s a gentle reminder that most other things in my life are happening and evolving at their own pace too, and I need not feel they are my sole responsibility and can only happen or succeed if I “make” them so. It’s a huge relief to consider that just maybe, just maybe, God is in control of those things too.
Related to that theme is a lesson I’m learning from a paint-by-numbers app I use sometimes to help me relax. The app offers a huge, ever-growing selection of mandalas, nature scenes, places, flowers, mosaics, etc. A numbered palate of colors appears at the bottom and when you tap a color, the parts of the picture that correspond with that color turn gray. You tap the gray areas, and the picture starts coming to life.
At first, I resented being forced to use colors I didn’t choose, especially since the ones who generate these pictures sometimes use lots of shades of orange, reds, pinks and yellows while I prefer dark blues, purples and greens. But as the picture comes to completion, I am astonished at the beauty that has been created. Especially using shades of color I don’t like, didn’t know existed and would never have chosen to go side-by-side.
I’ve developed a lot of gratitude for those creators I used to resent—for their vision and ability to see potential where I see none. And I love that colors I would never use, never even imagine, can come together to create such startling beauty. Mind you, the picture doesn’t always come together all at once. Sometimes I’m genuinely confused about how it can possibly be redeemed with so much of that shade of green! Sometimes I stay skeptical until it is finished. Then I see the magic.
Maybe what is happening in my life at any given moment is also just shades of color I don’t always prefer or would certainly never choose. Maybe if I stop judging the colors according to my personal preference and trust in the genius of the designer creating the picture, I will see the perfection and beauty in the end. Maybe all that feels weird, doubtful and uncomfortable is just a necessary part of the genius and perfection that is unfolding. And I find that thought saving for me indeed.
Pray, Practice, Ponder
In the quote on the previous page, Rabbi Abraham Heschel invites us to consider how we rest and how we work. For those whose work is primarily physical, requiring the use of their hands and bodies, “sabbath,” Heschel suggests, is an invitation to rest the body and activate the mind. For those whose work is primarily mental, the opposite may be true. Today, ponder how you spend your working hours, and how this impacts what “sabbath” rest looks like for you.
Our June fellowship meal (taco-bar) is next week, Wednesday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. Please contact the church office by noon on Monday, June 16 if you plan to participate, assuring that we’ll have plenty of good food to enjoy. Below is the summer Wednesday schedule!
June's midweek meal will be June 18.
July's midweek meal will be July 16.
Our August gathering will be Sunday, August 17 (details below).
Save the date!
Our August gathering will be held at the Deep Creek Pavilion on Sunday, August 17,
from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join in the fun!
We will restart our WEEKLY meals on Wednesday, September 3
(which is the Wednesday following Labor Day).
Anna Anderson
CBF Field Personnel, Rocky Mount, N.C.
“Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right
now?
Are you waiting for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this new glimpse that you found; carry into evening all that you want from this day.
This interval you spent reading or hearing this, keep it for life—
What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?”
—William Stafford, “You Reading this, Be Ready”
I found a little wooden sign in a store recently that reads, “Today is a good day to thank God.” I bought the sign and hung it in my office so that I see it each time I sit at my desk, pondering or writing, answering emails or spending time on Zoom. These are the moments for which I always want to be reminded—to thank God. They’re not necessarily those favorite moments, but they remind me to be grateful for all of the moments I have been given. All the moments I experience every day.
Having my first grandchild who is now two-years-old has brought me such a new perspective on living in the here and now. I knew this, of course, before the birth of this precious one, but I have been made so much more aware of the gratitude that living in the moment brings. I am thankful for the times we spend holding hands with each other, the looking into the eyes of one another, the times we laugh together, the times we experience the joy and wonder of some tiny little part of creation like a dandelion, or the blowing of the bubbles from the bottle, or the amazement at the little truck that rolls, the splashing in the bathtub and the giggling joy that sliding down the slide at the playground brings. These are the good times. These are the rewards of recognizing life’s gifts.
I am grateful for every day, every moment, that I have been given, every experience of each of those days that I carry into the evenings with me. What we have is now. That’s all. And what a joy and privilege to live in the moment of the here and now.
Serving as a field personnel takes us to places on some days that can be awfully heavy and sad. There are so many reasons in this world to be despondent and to see so much that is so wrong. I reflect on that little sign at the end of the day, “Today is a good day to thank God.” Every day. All the moments.
Pray, Practice, Ponder
Loving, Creator God, how can I thank you for all the gifts you have poured onto me? How can I live in the kind of gratitude such an amazing God deserves? Show me the ways of Jesus every day, Holy God, and help me to live like you. And let the gratitude I feel flow through me into the world. Amen.
Our June fellowship meal is two weeks away…Wednesday, June 18 (taco-bar). Please contact the church office if you plan to participate, assuring that we’ll have plenty of good food to enjoy. Below is the summer Wednesday schedule!
June's midweek meal will be June 18.
July's midweek meal will be July 16.
Our August gathering will be Sunday, August 17 (details below).
Save the date!
Our August gathering will be held at the Deep Creek Pavilion on Sunday, August 17,
from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Come join in the fun!
We will restart our WEEKLY meals on Wednesday, September 3
(which is the Wednesday following Labor Day).