Not Forever

We've been having some great discussions in the Wednesday night Bible study. I find myself learning something new every week, seeing scripture and people -- including me -- from new perspectives.

One of the gold nuggets I found this week is in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The devil came to tempt Jesus, misusing the promises of scripture in attempt to get him to compromise into doing wrong. Jesus responded each time by standing his ground and doing what was right. "Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him" (Matthew 4:11).

It was a good reminder that difficult times do not last forever. Grief, temptation, anger -- all of these wax and wane. Standing firm just a little longer, especially when it seems too much, provides space for victory.

It reminds me, too, of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

"Therefore put on the full armor of God,

so that when the day of evil comes,

you may be able to stand your ground,

and after you have done everything,

to stand" (Ephesians 6:13).

-- Debi

Communion

Mark and I went to church in Portland this past Sunday.  Before Pastor Bill served Communion there, he talked about that word.  "Communion" speaks of sharing and relationship.  When we take the bread and juice together in this symbolism-rich meal, it is a powerful reminder of relationships with God and with each other, made possible through Jesus Christ. And it was not just those of us in that room of that church building at that time.  On that morning, I was struck by how the act of receiving Communion connected us with our home church, others with whom we have worshiped throughout our lives, and even people we've never met.  I am grateful for this gift of relationship, and want to honor it.

-- Debi

Emergencies Welcome

"EMERGENCIES WELCOME"

I love this sign. It's technically from a dentist's office, I think, but there is something more significant here. Emergencies are inconvenient and painful, a disturbance to everyday life. They add an element of unpredictability. To welcome emergencies is to create hospitable space in a not very hospitable time.

Isn't that who we should be as a church? By definition, much of life is routine -- eating, sleeping, working, and so forth. Love and faithfulness should shine through such routine moments. At the same time, it is right and good to create space in our hearts and minds and schedules for the other moments, too -- bumps in the road that range from inconvenience to crisis.

Emergencies happen. There is certainly no need to manufacture them! But when they come, we can welcome them with God's grace and love.

-- Debi

Paying Attention

Attributed to former baseball great Yogi Berra:

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
"The future ain't what it used to be."
"Never answer an anonymous letter."

Much of the charm of such Yogiisms is the mix of truth and foolishness. "You can observe a lot by watching," for example. As we said when I was a kid, "Duh," right? And yet, how much do I miss because I simply was not paying attention? How much is right in front of me, and I fail to notice?

As I move through this day, I will choose to watch, to seek beauty, to appreciate quiet blessings, to notice the people whose paths I cross.

-- Debi

Difficult Words

I just read an article that discloses the game HANGMAN's most difficult word. The word is "jazz". Now before you protest, lety me tell you that a computer tested every word in the English Dictionary. The "j" and "z" are seldom guessed before the noose takes full effect.

This left me wondering about difficult words in other contexts - spelling for example. One of the most often misspelled words is "bellwether." I can see where someone would want to throw in an extra "e" or "a" or "h".

What about difficult words to translate? Bart Wilson writes in Atlantic Monthly, "Did you know that fair is one-to-one untranslatable into any other language–that it is distinctly Anglo in origin? And a relatively new word at that?" He concludes that it is because it has origins in sport and has been carried over into the arena of disputes and complaints.

All this thinking about difficult words brought my mind back to a childhood Sunday School lesson where a King's life turned on one difficult word. "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'" Acts 26:28. Almost? How difficult this must have been for Paul. How difficult it will prove for the king. How difficult "almost" can become for us.

-- Joel

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Friendship

I admit it -- I like Facebook.  I enjoy hearing what is going on in the lives of people I love, seeing photos of their friends and families and fun times, getting the snippets of status updates.  That said, I was challenged recently by something I read through my Leadership Journal (a great publication, by the way) subscription:

"In an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, William Deresiewicz examines the new forms of friendship that have emerged in the age of Facebook. While social media has allowed us the opportunity to be connected to everyone, it more often than not comes at the expense of deep, meaningful, shaping friendship. Deresiewicz writes:

[Concerning] the moral content of classical friendship, its commitment to virtue and mutual improvement, that … has been lost. We have ceased to believe that a friend's highest purpose is to summon us to the good by offering moral advice and correction. We practice, instead, the nonjudgmental friendship of unconditional acceptance and support—'therapeutic' friendship, [to quote] Robert N. Bellah's scornful term. We seem to be terribly fragile now. A friend fulfills her duty, we suppose, by taking our side—validating our feelings, supporting our decisions, helping us to feel good about ourselves. We tell white lies, make excuses when a friend does something wrong, do what we can to keep the boat steady. We're busy people; we want our friendships fun and friction-free ….

With the social-networking sites of the new century—Friendster and MySpace were launched in 2003, Facebook in 2004—the friendship circle has expanded to engulf the whole of the social world, and in so doing, destroyed both its own nature and that of the individual friendship itself. Facebook's very premise—and promise—is that it makes our friendship circles visible. There they are, my friends, all in the same place. Except, of course, they're not in the same place, or, rather, they're not my friends. They're a [superficial likeness or semblance] of my friends—little dehydrated packets of images and information, no more my friends than a set of baseball cards is the New York Mets ….

Deresiewicz concludes: 'Friendship is devolving, in other words, from a relationship to a feeling—from something people share to something each of us hugs privately to ourselves in the loneliness of our electronic caves.'"

-- Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec, Canada; source: William Deresiewicz,
"Faux Friendship," The Chronicle of Higher Education (12-6-09)

I'm not planning to give up Facebook anytime soon.  But this reminds me to truly value and nurture genuine, soul-transforming friendship, and not settle for any superficial imitation.

My friends, please know that I am grateful for the unconditional love and support that have been shown to me.  But we must not stop there.  A friendship is only true when we're willing to risk sometimes-scary conversations as we lovingly challenge each other to more fully live according to what we say we believe and value.

-- Debi