Exodus Bible Study: Tuesday, May 26th at 9:15am: Tuesday Morning Bible Study. Read and discuss Exodus 4. Join via Zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/605651857
Mark Bible Study: Friday, May 29th at 2:00pm: This week we will read and discuss Mark 8. Join via Zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/360499365
Friends, please consider writing a devotion to share with your church family!
|
|
|
Devotion for Tuesday, May 26th
by Ruth Syre, Faith Community Nurse of WPPC
|
|
LITTLE THINGS
My (pandemic) morning routine finds me sitting at my computer in my rearranged bedroom. My daughter has been spending quarantine with me, so she occupies the spare bedroom, and my “office” is reconfigured on a card table in my room. It works just fine.
This morning, I see the same cardinal pair that I see most days. A lizard is scanning the area from atop his perch on an A/C unit. The birds in the neighboring marsh sing loudly and lustily. I recognize how content I am.
Paul writes in Philippians about being content in all circumstances. That suggestion is often difficult for me to follow. I am more likely to be thinking ahead, planning and preparing for something. How did Paul do it? He did not seem to have many peaceful periods in his life. He had more struggles and trials than I can even contemplate. Yet, he found contentment.
I wonder about the lessons I can learn during this time. Perhaps a new found respect for contentment is one of them. There is so much beyond our control. Most of us are blessed to be assured of a safe dwelling, adequate food, access to health care, friends and family who care. How blessed we are!
We are creatures of habit, creatures who like to think we are in control. Perhaps contentment is one way of acknowledging our lack of control. Perhaps it is a way to make a space for us to enter into a closer relationship with God. May we each find ways to be content in our circumstances, comforted by our God who loves us and wants us to live abundantly!
Ruth
|
|
Matthew 6:25-34 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?[b] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God[c] and his[d] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Philippians 4:11-12 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
11 Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.
|
|
O God, As We Pause (a hymn)
by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette https://pres-outlook.org/2020/05/o-god-as-we-pause-a-hymn/
ST. DENIO 11.11.11.11 (“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”)
O God, as we pause from our usual ways,
as millions stay home, as we count passing days,
may we learn what matters—what really has worth.
May we seek your reign as we live here on earth.
May we find your blessings in small, common things;
may we learn the joy that community brings.
In loving our neighbors, in stopping to pray,
may we know your presence in each passing day.
God, may we reflect on a world that has changed—
a world where our values have been rearranged.
For those who once thought they could stand by themselves
now value the workers who restock the shelves.
As greed and injustice are being laid bare,
may we build a nation that’s loving and fair.
God, give us the courage to change what we can,
to work for the justice that’s part of your plan.
So, turn us around, Lord, to make your world new;
May we seek, in all things, to first follow you.
In change and in sorrow may we seek your reign.
O God, in our pausing, restore us again!
Tune: Traditional Welsh hymn, in John Robert’s Caniadau y Cyssegr (Songs of the Sanctuary), 1839 (“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”)
Text: Copyright © 2020 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com
|
|
|
|
Tune for the hymn above
|
|
Another song suggested by Ruth for today:
|
|
|
|
You Are My All in All
|
|
|
|
|
