A favorite quote

By Howard Thurman

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive

From Sojourners Verse and Voice

To be human is to be responsible. That is the inner meaning of the "dominion" of Genesis 1:26, which is a dominion not of domination but of stewardship, taking care of the world's back yard ... God the world-maker is God the care-taker. Humans properly stand over other creatures only as they stand with other creatures, showing them love, giving them space, and granting them "rights."
- Kim Fabricius,
from his book, Propositions on Christian Theology

Spiritual Practice

THE IMPACT of our “spiritual life” … has to do with the spirit in which we approach people and events. That spirit displays itself as much in the moments of frustration as in the moments of inspiration. As we stew in reactive emotions, we are engaging in “spiritual practice,” however unhelpful, which affects our presence to ourselves and others. The way we live our life is our spiritual practice — no more, no less, nothing but, nothing else.

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From p. 14 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author
by way of the Upper Room web site this morning

Thought of the Day

WHY IS IT so hard for us to believe that God’s love really is unconditional and that we should imitate God’s love not only for others, but also for ourselves? Perhaps we have regarded self-centered behavior too harshly. We are unwilling or unable to give ourselves the same gentle grace that God offers us and that we believe should be offered to others. Leap from doubt to belief and remember that God loves you, delights in you, and yearns for your response.

- Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

From pp. 389-90 of A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job. Copyright © 2003 by the authors
by way of Upper Room website....even though I keep a copy of this book on my desk

Back to the true characteristics of a "rambling" blog;
Beth returns from Mumbai tomorrow and is due back around 4:20(unless Delta airlines decrees other wise)and I hope to absorb some of her travel adventures.I want to ask more about the slum they "toured". Nick and Sara will both be home for the weekend and it is Beth's birthday on Monday. Tonight was the last night of the confirmation class and I saw some words in their affirmations of faith that made me feel that yes, all those chaotic classes were worth the effort. Confirmation is this Sunday. Also today I got the stitches out of my finger and all is well...just a common type of growth reaction from some vascular trauma...must have cut or or smashed my finger some time back in Australia. There is some chance of it growing back so they hope to have removed enough of the tissue. The experience was more inconvenience than anything else and the vicodin didn't get much use. I am thinking that getting to be almost 54 and just now getting my first stitches has to be unusual...finally another right of passage! Although I had a cut on my chin back in college that probably could have used a stitch or two!
Seasonally, the pine trees in the yard started dropping their needles right on the first day of autumn and a few yellowed leaves have joined them. I picked few nice red tomatoes from the flower bed which is quite remarkable since we were gone for two months. My usual Labor day weekend routine of puttng a fresh layer of black seal coat on the driveway, was done on schedule. Since the church put windows on the parsonage screen porch this summer when we were gone I am now spared the October tradition of getting the plastic on.

Enough for now, it is after ten. Last night I came home around 11 after 5 hours of evening cleaning in my office. Today was good day mixed with lectionary group, midweek communion, confirmation, conversations and office stuff and Wednesday night supper. Tomorrow brings some pastoral appointments. Park prayers and a meeting. Might have to do some prep for the Friday funeral and tidy up my notes for the Sunday sermon: "Shells, Glasses, and Tea cups" -object lessons for the confirmands and the rest of us. Enjoy the cool autumn mornings and the great afternoons.

God is good, life is sweet, and as I said,I am rambling on.

http://www.minnesotaumc.org/BishopsCorner/TheBishopsMessage/tabid/40439/Default.aspx

http://www.minnesotaumc.org/BishopsCorner/TheBishopsMessage/tabid/40439/Default.aspx

Shared via AddThis


Words from our bishop regarding this national debate on healthcare coverage!

Church Work

By Elizabeth O’Connor

The primary purpose of the disciplines, structures of accountability and mission of the Church is to build life together, to create liberating communities of caring. To each of us is given a gift for the building of a community of caring, a community in which we can learn to embrace our pain and to overcome all those oppressive inner structures that would keep us in bondage and make us protective and anxious for our own futures.

Source: The New Community
as posted by inward/outward

I think this is what I Corinthians 12 is saying, and Ephesians 4:12 when it speaks of our gifts "for building up the the body of Christ"

What a much needed perspective to counter our over-individualized, over-privatized approach to spirituality and faith that we tend to follow.

Tys blog

Beth is in Mumbai with the Rezacs at the American School of Bombay. I might be able to copy and post some of Beth's facebook updates inthe blog here, but a "must read" awaits you at the blog that Ty has at this address.

www.brainerdtobombay.blogspot.com

A Prayer by Bishop Sally Dyck

O GREAT AND GLORIOUS GOD,
who comes to us
in all the experiences of our lives;
help us to embrace your presence,
fixing it in our hearts and minds
so that we may grow
closer to you and others.
Amen.

- Sally Dyck
The Upper Room Disciplines 2010: A Book of Daily Devotions

From p. 53 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2010: A Book of Daily Devotions. Copyright © 2009 by Upper Room Books
(via Upper Room website..see my link)

The Dispatch

The local paper just got delivered. On Monday through Friday it gets delivered around 4:30 in the morning. For a long time the delivery car needed a muffler and I would often hear it making its rounds. The current car is quieter. Most mornings my routine is a combination of newspaper and coffee (and putting out the dog) before turning on the computer and reading some news and devotions; emails and face book updates. But on Saturdays the Dispatch becomes a Sunday edition even if it is the Satruday paper. It may arrive most anytime in the later afternoon or closer to midnight. Sometimes I have the paper read on line before the print version arrives. I get impatient. I tend to read the front page, the obits, and the local opinion submissions such as letters to the editor. I look for The biz buzz to see what business are coming or going. I scan the North Country section and look for familiar people in the celebrations section of weddings and anniversaries. I often see church member’s faces in there! Some people scour the sports page but since both kids are away from Brainerd and not in sports here, my skimming of local sports goes quickly. Of course we zoom in on school news and church news. I still wonder why the religion or church page gets tacked onto the back part of the sports section!

What I have always appreciated is the fact that local papers are local. I can’t count the number of times Nick or Sara were pictured, or noted in the paper and people who know us will faithfully clip and save or mail the article to us so we can have copies for grandparents and all. Last week a photo of me was used on the front page regarding the digital TV change over and how it might interfere with church wireless sound systems. I knew absolutely nothing about the topic, but they needed a local picture of a pastor holding a wireless microphone and I guess it was my turn. .And the photographer is from this congregation. (Don’t get me wrong. I loved the attention for me and the church) Over the years I have enjoyed being a contributor to church page articles and “clergy view” writing opportunities. I have not found that to be a common opportunity in major newspapers and it is getting to be rare. The Star tribune has yet to contact me! Will future pastors have such a chance?

Now don’t think I am all idealistic about this. I have to admit some real embarrassment about some of the Vox Pop and Letters to the editor that I read. I hope that we don’t feed too many stereotypes about small town gossip or politics. Last week a letter to the editor was from someone denouncing by name, the local Lutheran churches for not taking a stand against a recent denominational issue. If I were in the Lutheran’s shoes I would not have appreciated that attack and perhaps the paper should not have printed it. But then today I see someone else wrote a helpful response to that letter.
Anyway, I hope this form of the media can survive. The on line editions just wont feel the same if the print becomes extinct. So excuse me while I leave the computer world of news, blogs and face book., and take the paper out to the screen porch, to a rocking chair, with crickets and night sounds, to unfold the pages, feel the tactile nearness of this information in my hands, enjoy the pictures, and read the names of people I have come to know, whether I have met them all or not, in the local newspaper; from here mostly. Mostly just for us.

Rambling on

Prayer again from Upper Room website

CHRIST, MY SERVANT LORD, I seek to do your will, yet I am so often discouraged by what I see and what I know. What I experience often beats me down, driving out my joy and dreams and even the sight of you. But your faithful Spirit dwells with me, stirring my heart and my mind. And so I pray that you who are the Dreamer, the Joy, and the Hope of the Ages would sow in me dreams and visions of what is yet to be, that what is may never so fill my seeing that I am unable to see you, so conquer my knowing that I cease to know you, or so paralyze my doing that I fail to serve you. Amen.

- Minerva G. Carcaño
Rhythm & Fire: Experiencing the Holy in Community and Solitude

From p. 27 of Rhythm & Fire edited by Jerry P. Haas and Cynthia Langston Kirk. Copyright © 2008 by Upper Room Books.

The prayer from upper room website today

LOVING GOD, full of compassion and grace, walk beside me as I begin to listen to all the voices and to collect information I will use in discerning your longing for me. I am afraid that I will listen to the wrong voices or that I won’t hear the voices I need to hear. Open my ears to hear. Assuage my fears and help me resist blocking the voices I don’t want to hear. May the Holy Spirit grant me wisdom. In the name of the One who challenged me to hear, Jesus Christ my Savior, Amen.

- Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd
Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment

From p. 77 of Living into the Answers: A Workbook for Personal Spiritual Discernment by Valerie K. Isenhower and Judith A. Todd. Copyright © 2008 by the authors

From Nouwen

Keeping It Together


How can we not lose our souls when everything and everybody pulls us in the most different directions? How can we "keep it together" when we are constantly torn apart?

Jesus says: "Not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives" (Luke 21:18-19). We can only survive our world when we trust that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We can only keep it together when we believe that God holds us together. We can only win our lives when we remain faithful to the truth that every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in the divine embrace of our Lord. To say it differently: When we keep living a spiritual life, we have nothing to be afraid of.


These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey.

GOD OF ALL PEOPLES,
save us from the easy assumption
that those who share our citizenship, our race, our faith,
are those most likely to bear your love for us.
Keep us building bridges.
Amen.

- Brian W. Grant
The Upper Room Disciplines 2007

From p. 295 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2007. Copyright © 2006 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved

SHINE BRIGHTLY, Holy Light;
shine brightly in my life.
Let your light in my light burst forth,
warming my heart
and the hearts of all I meet.
Let every breath be praise and every word be love.
In Christ’s holy name I pray.
Amen.

- Bruce G. Epperly
Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living

From p. 66 of Holy Adventurer: 41 Days of Audacious Living by Bruce G. Epperly. Copyright © 2008 by the author
from upper room website

Labor day quotes

WORK IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT CREATION. We apply ourselves to a particular situation in the world and our energy, our work, changes that situation and creates something new. Whether this is a physical creation, as in the case of construction, or an organizational creation, as in the case of management, or the creation of a more healthy, happy person, as in the case of the helping professions, work is about creation and creativity.

- Daniel Wolpert
Leading a Life with God: The Practice of Spiritual Leadership

From p. 81 of Leading a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2006 by the author. All Rights Reserved. (from Upper Room)

and this from inward/outward;
By Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.


a prayer copied from verse and voice:
God who cares for the weary, we pray for all who work more than one job in order to provide for their families. We pray especially for single parents who labor in many roles; give them rest and support from their communities. May the dignity of all workers be honored, today and each day.




and some History too:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=264135ad-9838-437c-a3cd-fd11a5bffe05

IF WE GIVE what we are to God and enter that divine relationship, no vocation is by definition holier than another. We do not need to become ministers or missionaries unless that is our specific guidance. One of the holiest men I ever knew was a microbiologist. One of the holiest women I ever knew was a librarian. If we belong to God, whatever our vocation, God will shine through us.

- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Miracle: When Christ Touches Our Deepest Need

From p. 93 of Miracle by Flora Slosson Wuellner. Copyright © 2008 by the author. All Rights Reserved.

from Upper Room

Maybe I’m not making big changes in the world, but if I have somehow helped or encouraged somebody along the journey then I’ve done what I’m called to do.
- Sister Thea Bowman
African-American Franciscan (1937-1990)


from verse and voice at Sojourners

from the Upper Room again

CREATED IN GOD’S OWN IMAGE — with the capacity to love — we seek to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Faith is the means to this loving end. In other words, built upon a firm foundation of trust in Christ, our lives move toward the goal of love — the fullest possible love of God and the fullest possible love of all people and things in God. What an audacious vision, to be immersed and lost in God’s love!

- Paul Wesley Chilcote
A Life-Shaping Prayer: 52 Meditations in the Wesleyan Spirit

From p. 31 of A Life-Shaping Prayer by Paul Wesley Chilcote. Copyright © 2008 by the author.
http://www.upperroom.org/daily/

From the Upper Room

TEACH US, O GOD,
to take the gift of a day
and give it back to you.
Help us walk in radiant faith and loyal service
with heightened awareness
that moments of spontaneous joy
can be found here
in the valley right under our feet. Amen.

- Nell E. Noonan
Not Alone: Encouragement for Caregivers

From p. 95 of Not Alone by Nell E. Noonan. Copyright © 2009 by the author