All In A Days Grace

  I’ll never forget an experience I had one day as I was journaling. I try to make it a habit to sit with my bible, devotional and journal each morning. Each one of those things helps me to focus on my prayers and dig deeper into scripture. I note questions, write down observations and sometimes just pour my frustrations out to God. On this particular morning my heart was heavy and I was carrying a heavy burden of frustration. There were so many things going on in my life and I was feeling the weight of it all pressing in on me. As I shared each burden with God, I also shared my feelings.   I wrote “God at this moment I just feel like running away, away, away, away, away…..” There was something therapeutic in the repetitive nature of this journal entry. Each time I wrote “away” there was this release. Each time I wrote it the burdens themselves seemed to gain distance from my heavy heart. The last time I wrote the letters out the “a” became separated from the “way” a b...

  John 14:13-14 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Those are pretty powerful words! The natural question we might have in reading that is to wonder “Is God saying that he will give me whatever I ask for?” The fast answer is yes….and…. no. The part of this scripture that becomes distorted and misinterpreted is in the understanding of the word “ask” The Greek form of this word is παρακαλώ-To beg, seek, request, call for Now, when we understand this in our own way we picture someone thinking or praying out loud a request to God. “Dear Lord, please give me a new job!” The prayer goes out and the waiting begins, and this is where disappointment grows. The “new job” may not come. You’ve prayed it over and over. You’ve read John 14:13-14 again and again. Whats going on!!?? Well, our “Ask” and Gods deeper understanding of our “Ask” is different. You may have asked for a new j...

  When I was a youth director, we spent a week out of the summer running a sleep over retreat out of the church. The youth would come for a week and sleep on the floor of the various open ministry rooms, eat together each day and worship each night before bed.  In between we would serve the community around us.  This looked different each day. We might head over to the local food bank and help them to organize the food. Another day we might help with a project that needed to be done at someone’s house or at a local school. Our schedule was packed and each day we would wake up early and go to bed late filled with a feeling of accomplishment.  I remember one of the projects so well to this day because it has helped me since then in my perspective of ministry. Many times, we have projects or tasks to complete when we are involved in ministry. When we look around there is a great deal of need in our communities. People need help with all kind of things.  During ...