It’s OK — whatever you need and how long it takes — it’s OK

a timeFor the sermon series “Gospel of the Nobodies,” based on the parable of the Prodigal Son, Rev. Kaleigh Corbett compared the desperation of the Prodigal Son, reduced to slopping pigs, to the desperation felt by those suffering from addiction, depression, self-injury, and suicidal thoughts. Our Associate Pastor for Children and Youth quoted a much-read blog post by Jamie Tworkowski, “There Is Still Some Time” illustrated in a poster above.

If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here.

If you feel too much, don’t go.

If this world is too painful, stop and rest.

It’s okay to stop and rest.

If you need a break, it’s okay to say you need a break.

This life — it’s not a contest, not a race, not a performance, not a thing that you win.

It’s okay to slow down.

F0r the complete post by the founder of “To Write Love on Her Arms, click here.  It closes with these lines:

Other people feel how you feel.

You are more than just your pain.

You are more than wounds, more than drugs, more than death and silence.

There is still some time to be surprised.

There is still some time to ask for help.

There is still some time to start again.

There is still some time for love to find you.

It’s not too late.

You’re not alone.

It’s okay — whatever you need and however long it takes — it’s okay.

It’s okay.

If you feel too much, there’s still a place for you here.

If you feel too much, don’t go.

The unusual line, as Kaleigh pointed out, is the part about surprise. The good news “is that there is always time for us to be surprised, and there is always time for us to find the love of God no matter how far we stray.”

Here is more from her inspiring sermon 

Rethink Church: for Lent — a photo a day

lent photo a ay

The website Rethink Church offers an unusual way to observe Lent: take a picture a day for that day’s theme (listed above). and post them on Facebook, as quoted here:

As we journey through this season of Lent, some will choose to give up something. Some will go about their lives as if it was ordinary time. Some will choose to be more reflective. Whatever your practices this season, will you join this photo-a-day challenge and share with the community how you perceive each word or phrase for the day? ….

You don’t have to be a great photographer. This project is more about the practice of paying attention and being intentional, than it is using the right filter or getting the perfect shot..

The first of the daily themes is Announce,  for Ash Wednesday, followed by Look, Joy, and Alone. For details on this intriguing project, click here.

Help Tell Faith Stories: Online Learning

Here’s news about an online learning course: Church Communication in the 21st Century 

For too long, the voice of people of faith has been hidden, drowned out or altogether silent in the public media. This course is designed to help you reclaim your own voice in order to speak faith to a world desperately in need of the good news of God’s love by using the communications tools of the 21st century. Next class begins on November 5, 2014 and costs $29. PUMC can help with the cost. Find out more here.

What will you learn?

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Explain the importance of telling stories of faith and sharing individual messages in the public sphere.
  • Craft and share personal stories of faith.
  • Identify people and organizations with whom to build relationships via social media and other 21st century communications tools.
  • Use and participate in specific tools, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Flickr, and Blog.
  • Articulate and implement best practices for using 21st century communications tools to communicate faith.
  • Discover additional training opportunities to organize a local church small group study for Communicating Faith in the 21st Century that can empower the local church to tell its stories of faith in the public sphere.
  • Access resources from United Methodist Communications, The United Methodist Church, United Methodist News Service, and other denomination and faith-based organizations.

What can I expect?

This online course allows learners to complete the 6-week schedule at their own pace, at their convenience.

In the course, you will

  • Read information,
  • Explore multimedia materials,
  • Engage in discussion forums,
  • Complete assignments,
  • Take quizzes, and
  • Share feedback

Claim — or reclaim your voice to share the Good News!

The Landscape of Lent: Wind

2014 3 16 wind photo sanctuary Some of God’s best work happens in the midst of chaos and ambiguity, said Catherine Williams in her sermon at Princeton United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 16, 2014. The theme was “Wind,” and it was part of a Lenten sermon series on the elements. Here is an excerpt, and for the complete text, click here. The audio version is also available on Sermon.net.

Some of God’s best work happens in the midst of chaos and ambiguity. I was never more aware of that than in my clinical pastoral exposure in the chaos of emergency rooms, in the ambiguity of the psychiatric floor, or in the limbo of the intensive care unit and its waiting rooms. As a terrified chaplain-in-training, despite my predilection for order and control, I discovered that some of God’s best work takes place in the midst of life’s disruptions.

May those of us today who are trying to live through situations of ambiguity and uncertainty allow the wind of God’s spirit to fill us with peace. Often in this place of peace we encounter God’s wisdom, God’s knowledge, God’s understanding, God’s perspective of the situation that simply had not occurred to us before, nor would ever have, had we not placed our trust in God.

So come Holy Spirit, blow upon our hearts this day.

Blow your healing breath where there is pain and sadness.

Blow like a gale where there is complacency and inertia.

Blow, wind of God, blow over our trampled, broken dreams and bring them to life.

Blow over our callous hearts and soften them for your compassionate use.

Blow over our broken families and breathe forgiveness into places of disillusion.

Blow over frail and dysfunctional bodies and cause a rush of healing life to flow within them.

Blow over our failed systems of justice and overturn the rampant corruption and fraud that oppress your people.

Blow over city streets filled with violence and crime; let your reign of peace exert a leavening influence in our families and schools so our children learn to love peace and hate war.

Come holy spirit, breath of God, may this Lenten season give way to the Easter of our lives where we are reborn and renewed from above…

in the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the blessed Holy Spirit, Amen