Posts from April 2020

Dear church family, “Look out the window!”  I said this to Kelli the other day when I spotted a pileated woodpecker on the bird feeder.  (Here is Kelli’s photo.)  When we experience something remarkable, we like to share it with others – whether a beautiful bird or a funny video.  Somehow sharing it makes it more meaningful.  Whatever we admire, laugh about, or stew over – it feels undigested unless we tell somebody. Our urge to experience events in the…

Dear church family, Marks on the walls really stand out when you start moving furniture.  Maybe you have noticed this when rearranging rooms as part of shutdown adjustments at home.  The scratches and smudges outlining the former position of a couch or desk may take us by surprise.  Suddenly the wall seems to beg for washing if not repainting.   What we thought would be a blank space turned out to be a dirty space. So it is with our…

Dear Friends, Some shakiness and weakness showed up in my right hand the other day.  Immediately I began to think of diseases that might be the cause. Then I remembered that earlier I had been doing yard work involving repetitive motion with my right hand (using clippers, I think).  With relief, I pegged the shakiness to an ordinary case of muscle fatigue. Once I understood the cause, I could smile at myself and carry on.  At this moment, most of…

Dear Friends, What’s the horizon of this shutdown?  It seems to keep expanding – two weeks, a month, two months, three months.  We have tried to stay positive –as we should! – about how God is working, what we are learning, and how we can serve others.  But now we plod into week three (or is it four?).  The cumulative strain of missed opportunities, contracted lives, financial hardships, and maybe illness among loved ones weighs on us.  We wish we…

Dear Friends, Learning to lose gracefully is one of our earliest and hardest lessons.  As kids, when we lost at Sorry! or Chutes and Ladders, we may have wanted to flip the board in a rage.  Maybe sometimes we did!  Growing a little older, we had to learn to say “good game” to sports teams that beat us.  And as we have matured as Christians, we have grappled with what Paul said – “I know how to be brought low,…

Dear Friends, Right now, in God’s providence, we have landed in a period of enforced isolation.  We no longer enjoy the face to face contact with friends in different spheres of our lives – particularly in church.  We miss meeting together as a body, shaking hands, hugging, singing together, taking the Lord’s Supper, and enjoying coffee and conversation in the fellowship hall.  This period of isolation comes with its challenges. (This video from me has some additional encouragement about our…