"The Place God Is Calling You To"

 Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

 Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

 I encourage to take reflect on these questions:

     1.    What is the one thing I do in life that brings me deep gladness?

Not necessarily happiness, but something like joy, something that makes you so glad you want to sing.

2. What can I do with that something that brings me deep gladness to meet a deep hunger in the world?

Not save the world by yourself. Not change the world by yourself. Just fill some deep hunger with that one thing that gives you deep gladness.

 To be a disciple should not be a matter of hard, unrewarding work that makes you weary.

 It is a matter of service, yes, but when we figure out God’s call on our lives it is done in places where your gladness finds its ultimate purpose.

 That good work you do for Jesus is going to reap a harvest. Servants of God, be deeply glad!

Praying Like a Mother

 1 Samuel 1:13,15 “Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. ’I am a woman who is deeply troubled….pouring out my soul to the LORD.’”

 Hannah desperately wanted a baby. She turned to the LORD in such fervent prayer that she appeared to her priest as a drunken woman.  Hannah didn’t care about her appearance; what she cared about was pouring out the troubles of her soul to the LORD.

What troubles your soul today? Is it something so dear to you that you are willing to start praying like a mother prays for her baby to be conceived?

If you are praying for some new opportunity, or healing, or for a child to find her way in life, start by earnestly praying in your heart.

 Hannah’s prayer was answered in the person of Samuel (‘Because I asked the LORD for him.’), and she prayed again:

 “My heart rejoices in the LORD…There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no Rock like our God.” (2:1,2)

 May God hear your heart’s petition and praise as you pray like a mother.

 Dedicated to our great niece Robbi Jean, b. 7.8.22

"For Heroes Proved"

 “O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!” America, the Beautiful (Katherine Lee Bates)

 Independence Day.  While we, as a nation, cannot agree on much (anything?) these days, perhaps on this holiday weekend we can agree that those who put their names to the Declaration of Independence are heroes. With the stoke of a pen they set in motion the creation of a government of, by and for the people.

 The signers understood that their mission was urgent, and that they would die…either together or separately for their beliefs. Heroic courage.

 These are they who more than self their country loved.

 Who are today’s heroes? Who rises up to risk their life and security for the sake of preserving freedom? 

 For this grand experiment in forming a more perfect union to continue heroes are still needed.

 But the hardest part of preserving democracy is persuading ‘we the people’ to follow heroes, not pretenders.

 On this 4^th of July,  pray for God’s blessing on our nation: that we the people will be wise enough to know and follow the heroes proved in the struggle to keep America beautiful.