SATURDAY, MARCH 19

“Deny yourself, pick up your cross and come with me” (Luke 9:23)

“You have to lose your life to save it.” (Luke 17:33)

Fear of Freedom

An education text that I've been reading says that even the oppressed can become so dependent on the system which oppresses them that they fear freedom. Seem ironic? How about this:

You've worked for Corporation X for a long time. You are offered a better situation in Corporation Y, but are not sure you can function outside of X. Get the picture? Then, to what are we really committed?

You want to be a disciple. It will require total commitment. You are warned that it's hard, dangerous and requires putting your life on the line. You look for counsel. Here's a bit of advice that Bill Spurr passed along in the Lenten Devotionals of 2001:

I ran in breathless freedom – yet I ran

In danger and disquiet, knowing fears,

Knowing no peace in the unbounded span

Of tither-wither in my feckless years.

But now the Hound of Heaven holds me fast.

So long as I fled, so fearful was my heart

Of capture in the fields that, in the past,

I quartered wildly – separate, apart –

Yet wishful for the haven of a cage,

A refuge from the running, now I lick

The Hand that loosed the hound; no longer rage

Possesses me, nor fear, nor any flick

Of panic. Now I yield – am tamed and still,

And lay my muzzle to my Captor's knee –

For now I know, obedient to His will,

A freedom never known when I was free.

(J. M. Campbell)

Prayer: Father God help us to understand that only as servants bound to you can we be truly free. Amen.

Ross Stuntz

FRIDAY, MARCH 18

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:14-15)

The PW Mom’s Circle asked each of their children the following questions: “If you could talk to God what would you say or ask?

Sean Patrick McGlynn (age 4) – Are the clouds really fun? Do you bounce on them? I would like to have a play date bouncing with you!

Emily McGlynn (age 9) – Is there really a Heaven and a Hell? I hope to go to Heaven. How am I doing?

Sam McGlynn (age 14) – God, I miss my family that are in Heaven. How are they doing? I think of them so much. Please send my love to Big Bompa, Grandma & Grandpa McGlynn, Great Grandma, and Maggie.

Jana Dinkeloo (age 9) – I would ask God if he would please take away my friend’s cancer, so he wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time in the hospital and could go back to preschool.

William Dinkeloo (age 5) – I would ask Jesus how does he talk to the wind and the water and say, “Be still.”

Gwendolyn Swisher (age 4) – God, please forgive everyone who has done something bad. Also, why do we go to church on the specific day Sunday?

(to be continued)

Prayer: Loving hearts that gladly meet you, willing hands upraised to greet you, ears and eyes and lips we bring, Jesus, as we softly sing. “Father, we thank you: Father in heaven, we thank you.” Amen.

PW Mom’s Circle

THURSDAY, MARCH 17

“And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28)

When the story of Easter culminates in the resurrection of Christ, we feel great joy and a sense of relief. Along with Jesus and God the Father, we have experienced, vicariously, a great tribulation and a testing; now everything’s going to be all right. The Kingdom of God seems attainable.

How do we describe our emotional reaction to this resurrection? I think Joel’s old testament description of what happens when God, at some future day, will “pour out his spirit on all flesh” may be a beautiful description of the joy of resurrection. What a sweet promise to the old men (I count myself as one of them) that they shall dream dreams. It’s as though the time to rest has come, it’s almost as though God is resting with me. I experience a great peace as God frees me to dream my dreams. What more could anyone ask?

Himself a maker of dreams and a caster of spells, Shakespeare characterized dreams as transitory and chimerical. Yet his Prospero acknowledges they are strongly rooted in human nature: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, …” (The Tempest, 4.1.146-58)

Prayer: Dear God, please give us our dreams. Amen.

Stanford Evans

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Bless the Lord, o my soul and do not forget all his benefits.” (Psalm 103:1-2)

Last August a friend shared a new way of praying called “sticky note prayers.” Basically you read a Bible passage that morning, notice what word, phrase, or thought seems to jump out at you, pray with it, and write that down on a sticky note. Then put it on your computer monitor, refrigerator, or wherever you would see it at different times of the day.

I tried it. One day after reading a passage in the Psalms, I wrote on the sticky note, “God provides.”

The very next morning as I drove down our street, I spotted a dismantled white baby bed. My neighbor put it out on the curb for trash pick-up. The owner, Mitzi, was in the front of her home weeding. I wheeled into her driveway. “Mitzi,” I exclaimed, “can I get your baby bed? We’ve been searching for one these past three weeks. We need it for a nine month old foster child.

Mitzi smiled. “Kate, I’m so glad someone can use it. I felt bad about putting it out for trash, but I needed to get rid of it. I just brought it out ten minutes ago. It’s hardly been used – just for my grandkids when they’d come to visit. Say, let me get the mattress and the bedding that goes with it.”

As I loaded up these “trash heap treasures,” Mitzi grinned. She exclaimed, “God provides!” I drove away in awed wonder at God’s timing and unexpected blessings. Yes, as the Psalmist declared long ago, God provides...and we are reminded to “forget not all God’s benefits.”

Prayer: God of surprises, thank you for providing what is needed when I’m at the end of my rope. Thank you for providing Jesus Christ who embodied your love and whose Spirit so often shines in caring faces. Amen.

Kate Thoresen

TUESDAY, MARCH 15

“A time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

In 1963, Sydney Carter, English poet, songwriter, and folk musician, set words to American Shaker music titled Simple Gifts and produced the well loved song, I Danced in the Morning. Carter had served in the Friends Ambulance Unit in WWII in Egypt, Palestine, and Greece as he lived out his pacifist beliefs. His celebratory words added joy and wonder to the notes. He is quoted as saying, “This is what Jesus should be about, joy and wonder.”

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,

And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,

And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth;

At Bethlehem I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be;

I am the Lord of the Dance said He,

And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,

And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said He.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,

But they would not dance and they would not follow me;

I danced for the fishermen, for James and John

They came with me and the dance went on.

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame;

But the holy people said it was a shame.

They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high,

And left me there on the cross to die.

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black;

It is hard to dance with the devil on your back.

They buried My body and they thought I’d gone:

But I am the dance and I still go on.

They cut Me down and I leap up high;

I am the life that will never die;

I’ll live in you if you live in Me:

I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.

In this enduring anthem of our time, Carter says, “I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us.”

Prayer: Our heavenly Father, may we hear you as you call us to do your work here on earth and may we joyfully respond. Amen.

Diane K. Bert

MONDAY, MARCH 14

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” (Exodus 20:9-10, King James version)

He was with us every Sunday, seated in the same pew, sitting quietly; a middle-aged man wearing an unpressed brown suit and his brown fedora hat. The hat remained on his head throughout the service.

He worshipped with us in an old New England church which deviated from the ways of pilgrim ancestors reluctantly at best.

We, the high school choir, seated in the sanctuary chancel, had an excellent view of the congregation; we scarcely gave this man a glance. We were busy, either sneaking in Latin homework or staring at the back row of the sanctuary. From there, the pastor’s son (a handsome football player) made faces at us.

One Sunday the sermon started with a very stern command from the pulpit. We were enjoined not to look at a certain person. The pastor made this very clear. He was going to preach about a man who wore his hat during the service. “He does not speak nor understand English,” said Dr. Mills. “But you will notice he attends service regularly. He comes from a land and a church where one wears a hat in God’s presence. He comes to join with fellow Christians as we worship together. This man of great faith is a gift to us from across the world. We learn from him every time he is with us in our sanctuary. He can not speak our language; listen to his silence.”

I, a high school chorister, listen to silence?

That stranger from the Middle East, what was he telling me? I did not solve the puzzle that day!

I never spoke to our stranger. I never knew his name.

He was my teacher.

Prayer: God above me, The Son beside me, The Spirit within me, The Three all around me. Amen. (Celtic prayer)

Carol Held

SUNDAY, MARCH 13

“O, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)

It has recently come to my attention that I frequently get accused of having a good attitude. The physical therapists I had following my knee replacement told me the reason I recovered so quickly was “attitude, attitude, attitude.”

I wondered. Why do I have a good attitude? Am I too stupid to realize how bad things are? I won’t admit to being stupid. So I have a good attitude because it makes sense. When I had cancer, I could have been depressed. But being depressed doesn’t help anyone beat cancer. I made fun of it. I asked the nurses what would happen to a fly if it landed under my radiation beam. I found out. Even if I had died, I would have died laughing.

A good attitude makes sense. But the most important reason I have a good attitude is that I’m tuned in to how loving God has been to me. I consider myself the richest man in the world. (Not that kind of richest, stewardship people.) I’ve been given a wonderful family. A terrific wife. Four great daughters. Three cool sons-in-law. Three unbelievable grandchildren. Even adorable pets.

I’ve been given the most wonderful church I can imagine. A rock-star staff. Hundreds of kind, generous people for me to love. (Incidentally, I recently realized that loving people is more important than being loved. It took me 73 years to figure that out. Maybe I am stupid.)

I’ve been given good health. Some eight surgeries were non-events. My cancers weren’t worth writing home about. Mumps, chicken pox … no big deal. I’ve been given outstanding causes to work on. Juvenile diabetes. Autism. Choir. FAR. Forgotten Harvest. FPC committees. Really outstanding causes.

God has been loving. All I had to do was recognize it. I couldn’t have had anything but a positive attitude.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you. If I prayed 24/7, I could never tell you how grateful I am for what you’ve done for me. Please help those who think the glass is half empty to realize that it’s overflowing. Because of you. Amen.

Hal Bay