Dependence

Dependence on God is one of the foundation stones of Christianity. Yet it is so hard to live up to the claim of "I will depend on God to handle it." I think it is because we have been ingrained with the notion that we can do it ourselves and in fact we have to do it ourselves, that depending on anyone else even God is just unamerican. Of course, as I think about it that statement it probably only applies to a certain segment of American society. Usually it takes running up against a situation that is totally beyond our control, before we seek God's help. Hopefully we can learn from the experience and begin to trust God with more and more of our life. This is where I am - hopefully letting God control more of my life although it is hard not to step in, and take back control. The "take control" part in really just a fantasy that I delude myself with, but it sounds good.

Creating a safe environment

There are signs all around schools today saying this area is drug/gun free. Most public buildings are now smoke-free. These rules were established to make schools and other buildings safe. If there were no guns in school then the students were safe from being shot (false assumption). Smoke free buildings are now safe for our lungs.

So, is your church safe? Can people come and get help, encouragement, and support with their problems without being ridiculed, shunned, or even told to leave? It seems as if people don't admit their problems until it becomes public knowledge as through a police arrest or similar "outing". Why? Could it be that the church isn't a safe place? Maybe or maybe not. Repetitious sins tend to be sins that are addictive, and as with all addictions the longer we are involved in them the harder they are to overcome. Getting help early would seem to be more beneficial than later. But establishing safe relationships where this can happen is difficult both for the one seeking help and those willing to help.

Lord, we need your help loving others and letting others love us.

Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness Part 2

We have taken some different/unusual actions in our group lately. We hope that they are helpful and encouraging to those that meet with us. We have a desire to have our group known as a "come as you are group, because there are no perfect people here." There are three characteristics of Jesus that we feel will help us reach our goal; they are love, acceptance, and forgiveness. We leaders made a public commitment to the group to always love, accept and forgive any of them. We promised that they could never do anything so bad that we would stop caring for them or trying to help them. We realize what an impossible task that is without the help of the Spirit to remind us of God's love for us and what Jesus endured for us. If we don't depend on the Spirit, our promise will become worthless when put to the test. We also challenged our brothers and sisters to consider this promise and hopefully come to the same conclusion as we did.

This week asked everyone to consider those that they have grudges against and forgive them. It may have been a little theatical but we suggested we do before a month is up. We did this, because it is easy for some of us to put off forgiving and just say "I do it later, when the time is right," so hopefully the time limit will help these people.

If we can't love the people we know well and are close to, why would we put forth the effort to join God in helping those we don't know well?

Fun weekend

Last weekend we had a great time. Some friends invited us out to dinner and to go to the ballet. Dinner is normal but the St Peterburg's Ballet Company (as in Russian) is not normal for Cody WY. It very good at least to my untrained eye. My basketball mind marveled at the vertical leap of the men, talk about being able to slam dunk. Apparently that is what the men do, leap and spin the women. Dancing on your toes must take a lot of skill and strength. They were quite amazing.
Saturday it warmed up to about 60, so a friend of mine and I went for a motorcycle ride. It was so nice as we rode through the country. Harvest was finishing up so there were few trucks on the road. The only wildlife we saw though were some antelope far in the distance. Then the wind picked up and we had to really lean into it to stay vertical, of course the fun came when we passed a row of trees that cut off the wind and we had to quickly change the lean. It is all part of living in Wyoming, plenty of wide open spaces and consequently nothing to slow down the wind.

Then Monday it turned cold and has stayed that way, brrrrr. There is hope for the weekend though.