A couple of months ago, I was chatting with a dear friend and the conversation went something like this:

“How’s your father-in-law doing?” 

“Not too well, I’m afraid.”  My father-in-law had faced some chronic health conditions, including congestive heart failure, the last few years.  I brought my friend up-to-date with his most recent hospitalization and his subsequent discharge to a rehabilitation facility.  It was becoming harder and harder to remain hopeful about his long-term health and prognosis. 

“I will certainly continue to pray for your family.”

“I don’t even know what to ask you to pray for.  For healing?  For hope?  For comfort?  For wisdom of the medical staff?  For patience?  For my mother-in-law?”

“Oh, that’s easy.  I’ll just pray with Amen.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll pray with Amen.  It’s from a book I’ve been reading.  Let me tell you about it…”

The book was “Start with Amen: How I Learned to Surrender by Keeping the End in Mind” by Beth Guckenberger.  To quote the Amazon blurb, “amen is more than just a way to punctuate a conversation with the God of the Universe.  Amen is a declaration of who God is and who we are in relation to him.  It is a moment of submission and worship, saying “So be it” to a Sovereignty that holds all things, and acknowledging “It is as you say” to him who holds our lives.” 

My father-in-law passed away a few days after our conversation. 

My friend sent a condolence card with a single word on the front:

“Amen.”

~Beth Hess

The other day as I sat at my window watching the birds I saw a little House Finch at the birdbath.  He seemed so nervous as he hopped back and forth around the rim.  It appeared that he was longing for a long cool drink of water.  Round and round the rim with his head turning in constant movement he danced.  I felt sorry for the little guy.  Fear clearly was keeping him from just dipping down to the refreshment.  As I watched I said out loud, “ go ahead, it’s ok, you are safe.”

“Think outside of the box “is such a common expression in our culture.

I began to wonder just how often do we put God in a Box.  We can only think in terms as big as our available knowledge.  So we are very limited indeed, or at least I am.

What kind of boxes do we put God in?  Is He in our 'duty' box?  We only bring Him out on Sunday morning for worship and then slip Him back on the shelf for the rest of the week?

Maybe He is in a 'fear' box.  This can be a very large box for human fear can be overwhelming and enormous!  Yet if we have Him in this box He is of little use, for we refuse to let Him out. We hold tight to our troubles.

This space has its roots in the history of how this congregation came to be - a group of Jesus followers inviting others to come and see Christ and live that faith out together.  Once a month, we will bring forth a devotional from years gone by.  Today we re-member (put together again in our minds) from thirty-five years ago  in the Lenten Devotional of 1983 - Sunday, March 6th to be precise though this one was written in January of 1982.

As I am writing on this January Sunday it is minus 15 degrees with a wind-chill of minus 60 degrees.  I have just returned from the gathering of the hardy few at church, where I was asked to prepare a thought for the Lenten booklet.  Lent -- so far removed from this January day.  I volunteered to write this because I want to reach out to you.  I wanted to write something that would have meaning to both you and me.  What can that message be?  Dominating my thoughts now is the bad weather -- Did anyone get stranded coming to or going home from church?  Will the canned food in the garage cupboard freeze?  Will it warm up enough to get out the cross-country skis?  My feet are cold.  Lent is so far away.

With the devastating effects of Hurricanes across the Caribbean and Gulf, we wanted to draw attention to an existing way we can be the hands and feet of Christ to those displaced.  United Methodists have one of the greatest relief organizations on the planet - one which will be present for a long time to this current situation.  The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) offers a global presence to reduce human suffering.  Often other agencies will funnel their aid through UMCOR as 100% of donations go towards the designated project.  This is possible because the people of the United Methodist Churches foot the bill for all overhead and then some through congregations such as ours.

 If your heart is breaking for someone or some people around the world, please pray and consider how your presence could be offered.  If you are like most of us and can only offer financial assistance from afar, feel free to give through St Andrew or go directly to UMCOR's Hurricane Harvey Relief efforts and bless others there.  If you still wish to do more, please come in and share your passion so we can come alongside and be present however God directs us.