Thought for the week of October 3, 2011

Happy October!!! Celebrate the change of seasons!!

As part of the process to become ordained in the United Methodist Church, candidates are required to describe their call to ministry in writing. I'd like to share part of my call with you.

When I was in the beginning stages of answering my call to ministry, I had a dream that I was headed out to check on the wheat pasture where I had some cattle grazing. For you non-farmers, when you graze wheat over the Winter, it's important that you pull the cattle off of the wheat before it begins to "stem". This means that when the wheat begins to transition from what is more of a grass, and begins to grow into stalks, the ability of the plant to recover from grazing is diminished, and the damage to the plant will decrease your harvest yield. So it's important to move the cattle off of the wheat field when the time is right.

In my dream, when I arrived at the wheat pasture, to my surprise, the wheat had already grown to a stage that would soon be ready to harvest. I shared that dream with my Mother, and she simply said, "sounds like you might be a little late to the harvest, but not too late". She was exactly right, and I knew that this was another affirming "nudge" from God to keep going the direction I was going, and to stop worrying about missing out on the many opportunities I might have had, if I had of chosen to surrender completely to God's call earlier in life.

The next Sunday at St. Luke's, when I walked into the sanctuary, there were two big planters behind the alter that were full of ripened wheat. Again, I got chill bumps from head to toe, and again, recognized this as an affirming sign from God that I was in the right place at the right time. 

God gives us signs all the time. There are so many stories in the bible describing signs and situations where God's hand is obvious and undeniable. Are you paying attention? Are you open to God speaking to you in your everyday lives? Are you fighting the Creators will for you to be in harmony with the Divine creation? Do you want things to go more smoothly for you in your everyday life? Could you use more unforced grace in your life? Christ doesn't say anything in the bible about worshiping Him, but he does say, over and over again, to "Follow Me".

My favorite paraphrased bible is "The Message" because of the plain and modern language.

One of my favorite teachings of Christ is that if you follow Him, life will be easier.

In Mathew 11: 28-30 Christ describes the benefits of living a Christ centered life.  

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep Company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Talk about good news!! Yes surrendering to God's will can be a little scary, but seriously, God never gives up on you, and as I can attest, the Creator won't leave you alone either. You can turn away, you can run the other direction, but the love and grace of God will never be diminished. Thank God for that!!!!