Thursday, February 25, 2010

If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is "thank you," that would suffice. 

~ Meister Eckhart

I began "The Thought for the Day" on March 27, 2006. It has been four years! With my upcoming move to the United Methodist Church in Hampton, N.H., I have decided stop publication. It has been a real pleasure for me to offer these "Thoughts". Thanks for being a part of it and may God bless your journey.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.

~ William Sloane Coffine

Hope is choice, a way of acting and being in the world. It opens us up. It allows us to welcome the possibilities God offers us.

So dare to hope! And walk into the future that Grace opens to you.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people. 

~ Leo Tolstoy

That might even fit on a bumper-sticker! It beats a license plate I once saw that said, "ALL4ME." Now that plate might have been in jest, but it is a little too close to the truth about our culture.

Being a person of faith is holding values that run counter to our consumer culture. It is not easy to walk that narrow path, but Lent is a time to come home to what is really real.

(I began "The Thought for the Day" on March 27, 2006. It has been nearly four years! With my upcoming move to the United Methodist Church in Hampton, N.H., I have decided stop publication at the end of this month. It has been a real pleasure for me to offer these "Thoughts". Thanks for being a part of it and may God bless your journey.)

Monday, February 22, 2010

We are not in as close a union with God as we could be as God wants us to be, and that the obstacles are those that we erect: the idols we put in God's place, the fears that we harbor, the love that we stifle, rather than share with others. There are walls that must be shattered, paths that must be avoided, illusions that must be shattered – all for Love's sake. ~ Amy Welborn

Lent gives us away to get where we need to be. It is a living practice to take up. It is a time to look at our lives and do some life "house cleaning."

Unless we clean things out, unless we get rid of things that only burden us, our lives are cluttered and unfocused. Lent is a time to find focus and open ourselves to God's future for us.

(I began "The Thought for the Day" on March 27, 2006. It has been nearly four years! With my upcoming move to the United Methodist Church in Hampton, N.H., I have decided stop publication at the end of this month. It has been a real pleasure for me to offer these "Thoughts". Thanks for being a part of it and may God bless your journey.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010; The first Thursday in Lent

To know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Disciplines. The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life. 

~ Richard Foster

A spiritual discipline won't necessarily bring you closer to God. Only God, as we are open and cooperate with the Spirit, can bring you closer. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to Grace.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully. ~ Phillips Brooks

May you find the deeper love, the deeper reasons, that will enable you to do things beautifully today.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

~ Howard Zinn

It all depends on what we choose to emphasize. If we see only the worst, it makes us cynical and hopeless. But if we focus on the good and graceful, it gives us hope and the energy to make a difference. 

So let's ask ourselves what gift Grace offers us in the events of our lives and open up to welcome and live into that hope.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The moment of change is the only poem. 

~ Andrienne Rich

Often we do our best to avoid change. Yet it can give rise to creative newness. Without it life is just one day after another.

What change is in your life? What might it mean for you to see it as poem or giving rise to creative potential? 

God calls us to journey into a future, walking in the way of Jesus, who embraced the path with hope and trust. So may we.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Life is a progress, and not a station. 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

With my recent appointment to the Hampton church, these words have renewed meaning. 

Often we grasp at security. Yet our faith tells us that deeper security is found as we walk a changing path, trusting in Christ. Life is a journey, a path with Christ and others.

Monday, February 8, 2010

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. 

~ Pericles

It was announced yesterday (2/7) at Old South Church that I will be the new pastor at the Hampton United Methodist Church in Hampton New Hampshire. While I am very excited by this new appointment by the bishop, I am also sad at having to leave a community that I have been deeply privileged to served for nine years. My family and I have so many good friends in the community. It is in the nature of pastoral ministry that strong bonds are formed. We will have the next more than 4 months (I start at Hampton 7/1) to say "goodbye" and come to accept and even embrace the new future the Spirit has for us. I did not ask to be moved but in our appointive system clergy are sent to new communities to offer their gifts and leadership. I have always been profoundly gifted by each community that I have served and I trust that will continue to be true. 

Please pray for my family and me, and the communities of Old South and Hampton during this time of transition and hopeful expectation.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

~ Jonathan Swift

Unfortunately this may be how many people see religions in our time. And it begs the question of whether we are up to the challenge of being the face of  a faith that is life-giving and loving. Any hint of arrogance or triumphalism is deadly in this regard. Can we be the humble and loving people Christ calls us to be?

I wouldn't be a pastor if I thought we could not. So let's join together in having enough authentic religion to really love one another.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Buy a house on Gratitude Street. Do so as soon as you can, because this is the only place to live, and the longer you live here the more you'll love it.

~ J. Ellsworth Kalas

Say and live "thank you" as much as you can. Gratitude is spiritual practice that we must work at. It both changes us and means that we have been changed already. 

Enjoy your day on Gratitude Street.

Monday, February 1, 2010

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

God is forgiving because God is strong and loving. As we grow along our journey and reclaim the image of God within, we too are strong to forgive and love. So live out and practice your faith today, so that you may be loving as God is loving.