April 22nd

Good Friday today, and a good worship service. I think folks were touched tonight, so I thank you for that. I pray for your blessing on us all as we reflect on Jesus' death, the sacrifice that alone could pay the price of my sin.

April 21st

Lord, it's Maundy Thursday, so I ponder what Jesus did o[n my behalf. Thanks for his graciousness and love.
Thanks as well for the handful of folks that helped celebrate the occasion and church. It was disappointing that more people didn't turn out, but the few that were there were a blessing.

April 20th

God, it's been a pretty good day. I'm feeling inspired lately, a lot more creative than I have been for a while, so thanks for that. Part of the creative process has led me to a curious thought: the Ugly Thought as a way of teaching your truths. Help me work on Ugly Truths as a way of reaching out to a new generation that is very cynical, yet desires something more to life. Thanks for physiotherapy and the start it's given me on getting a better shoulder.

April 19th

God, it was a long, long day yesterday, but a good one as well. I felt like some good work was accomplished and that I was part of something good happening.
There were moments of frustration, too. As we explored the needs of our community, it felt at time that we were too caught up in navel-gazing to see the reality around us. I could feel the irony of the situation: we were trying to figure out reasons our denomination was struggling, and couldn't fathom that our navel-gazing was part of the problem. Lord, open our eyes to the true shortcomings of our faith: ourselves, when we look too much inward rather than recognizing and adapting to the needs and the changes in society around us.

April 18th

God, thanks for a day of creative insight and imagination. Playing with ideas and working on my music with another person is a humbling and gratifying experience.
It humbles me to realize how many talented people are around me, and how you use them to help me with my limited talent. It's gratifying to realize that you can use even me and my gifts, especially when they are helped along by another set of ears. Thanks for letting me work with Bob, and keep me open to his suggestions. Most importantly, open us to your Holy Spirit as we work together so that my songs will be a truly worthy offering to you.

April 17th

God, thanks for a busy but great day. It started with a great worship service and a wonderful guest speaker and ended with a good workout.
I thank you for Kathryn Hare and her excellent message. I also thank you for her family and joy we shared over lunch.
Thanks as well for my time meeting with Unity and planning for our upcoming anniversary and their concert at the church.
May these blessings help me to better serve St. James and inspire the folks at the church to better serve their community.

Sunday, April 17th: Carefully Unshielded

Magnets and computers have a love-hate relationship, especially old computers. Computers love magnets because they store most of their information in magnetic form. From ads to zip files, from the most mundane note to the fanciest video, from passwords to past history, magnetism is vital to keeping them safe and sound deep in the bowels of your computer.
Because information is stored magnetically, external magnets are very dangerous to computers. If it weren’t for strong shielding from outside magnetism, precious memories and expensive programs would be forever lost if a strong magnet was placed by your computer. Forget what you see on programs like CSI. If someone erased the files on your computer with a good, strong magnet, not even the trickiest forensic investigator would be able to recover those priceless jokes Uncle Vince emailed to you.
For computers, magnetic shielding is of vital importance. However, back in the old days, before CDs, DVDs and Flash Memory, magnets were even more dangerous, because data was transferred from one system to another with magnetic disks. They were very vulnerable to magnetic fields, because they were completely unprotected. If you carried a disk in your pocket and got too close to magnet, that was it, game over; your information would be absolutely and hopelessly lost. Floppy disks were very fragile things.
We humans are pretty vulnerable as well. Emotionally and spiritually speaking we have pretty thin skins. Hurtful words, unexpected downturns, even lousy weather can break through our defenses and drag us down. Largely unshielded from the worst and the best the world and others have to offer, we are pretty much equally open to both joy and misery.
You might think this is pretty unfair. Why doesn’t God protect us from pain and disappointment? Why aren’t we shielded from the vagaries of the weather and unpredictable relatives? Why can’t we just resist everything that might hurt us?
It all stems from being human, which means being created in God’s image. God suffers too. God gets hurt when we abandon Him. God gets hurt when we insult Him. God gets hurt when we defy Him. In other words, God is just as unshielded from the pain we cause Him as we are from the pain we feel. God’s cure for His suffering is found in the forgiveness Jesus brought about on the cross. God forgives us for hurting Him and then moves on. Our cure is found in the same place: Jesus calls us to forgive just as we are forgiven. We aren’t shielded from pain by the cross. Its forgiveness, however, is our greatest relief from whatever the world throws at us.

April 16th

God, I thank you for all the talented kids here in Chatham, especially the group at the Pines. They did such a great job with their show, and the family and I had a great time. I also thank you for the day as a whole and for getting to spend some time with David, Anna and Lois.

April 15th

God, thanks for a quiet day to focus on getting ready for Sunday and for worship over the next little while.