AUTO-CORRECT

Although I have had an iPhone for nearly two years, I continue to struggle with the touchscreen. It seems the longer I have the phone, the more often I need to go back and correct misspellings.

What I have just realized is that the auto-correct feature on the phone seems to have gotten used to my misspellings! It appears to me that the phone has “learned” that these misspelled words are legitimate so it keeps suggesting them as the right word to use. “Where did this gibberish come from?” I mutter to myself as I keep trying to type in the correct spelling of the word I want to use. Then, I realize the phone keeps making the same mistakes I have made over and over earlier!

This is a reminder that we often make the same mistakes over and over. It is not unusual for us to have not only physical weaknesses but spiritual weak spots. For some of us it is the need to be in control. For others it is the need to have power or be successful. For others it is an addiction to alcohol or pornography or drugs or money. For some it is a tongue that is eager to gossip and for others it is inappropriate anger. For some it is the need for constant change and for others it is the demand that things stay the same.

The same issues, the same temptations, the same weaknesses, keep tripping us up.

What does this mean?

First, be slow to judge others (Romans 2) because we each have our own issues…our own sin.

Second, we have been justified or forgiven by God in Christ (Romans 5). We don’t have to carry around the shame or guilt of past sin (or misspellings).

Third, we need to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice every day (Romans 12) as we make a decision to (Romans 6:4) “walk in newness of life.” At some point we make a decision that we don’t want to keep replaying the same old craziness…sin.

Fourth, don’t do life on your own but have people around you who you can trust to love you and speak the truth to you (Romans 12 says we are like members of one body). In Romans 15:14 Paul says that there are those who are “full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct” us.

I am spiritually weak or vulnerable in certain ways and places.

Like the auto correct feature on the phone, I am tempted to make the same mistakes over and over again.

God, though, has a better idea!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

Note: We continue to work to adjust to the reduction of our staff from three full-time ordained Elders (pastors) to two. Please be patient with us as we look for new, faithful and creative ways to provide leadership (often turning to lay leaders to do what a clergyperson has done).

THE GRIEF AND JOY OF NEW BEGINNINGS

On a sunny Friday afternoon at the end of June, my husband, Jonathan, and I cruised into town with a U-Haul truck packed to the brim and our two dogs in tow, ready to begin this new chapter of our lives here in Bloomington.

Since then, we have been in the midst of a whirlwind of transitions, changes, and adjustments. Last Monday, after a week of unpacking and getting settled, I was sitting at my desk here in the church office, eagerly preparing for my first week of work when I received a phone call from my mom, letting me know that my grandmother's 19-year battle with Alzheimer's had finally come to an end. Stunned by grief, I was switching gears yet again, making travel arrangements and planning for the funeral.

I never imagined that these past few months would bring with them so many hectic changes! How often do we find ourselves in that "in between" space, celebrating the joy of new beginnings, while at the same time, grieving things lost in the transition?

As I transitioned yet again, departing from my grandma's burial service in the mountains of Tennessee and driving back to Bloomington, I was caught up in the flurry of busyness leading up to Sunday night's youth group. Very quickly, I moved from a place of grief to a place of joy when I had the opportunity to meet many of the junior and senior high students that will be serving on the Detroit Mission Trip with us next week. In the wake of many changes and emotions, I was blown away by this awesome group of students, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in their lives!

Following Sunday night's youth group, I propped my feet up and spent some time in reflection on our patio. Underneath the bright stars of the Bloomington sky, I realized how humbled I had been by the genuine hospitality of our students as they work through the transition of welcoming a new Senior High Youth Director. How often do we find ourselves in that "in between" space, celebrating the joy of new beginnings, while at the same time, grieving things lost in the transition?

One of my favorite writers, Ted Loder, in his book, Guerillas of Grace, wrote a beautifully worded prayer that I have adopted as my own leading up to these major life transitions of the past few months:

"O God of beginnings, as your Spirit moved over the face of the deep on the first day of creation, Move with me now in my time of beginnings, when the air is rain-washed, the bloom is on the bush, and the world seems fresh and full of possibilities, and I feel ready and full. I tremble on the edge of a maybe, a first time, a new thing, a tentative start, and the wonder of it lays its finger on my lips. In silence, Lord, I share now my eagerness and my uneasiness about this something different I would be or do; and I listen for your leading to help me separate the light from the darkness in the change I seek to shape and which is shaping me."

Thanks for allowing me to join you on the journey, and I look forward to this season of new beginnings!

God's best,

Sarah Sparks-Franklin

THE REST OF THE STORY...

I consider myself a fairly patient person (I can hear my husband guffawing as I write this) EXCEPT when it comes to waiting for food and when starting something new. Ever since I was young, I would go from pleasantly full to starving – no in between. So, when I am hungry, I. AM. STARVED!  At these times it is best for me to wear a sign saying, “Feed the bear. She’ll return to a human.” So, I am definitely not patient when it comes to eating.

I am also not overly patient when I start something new, albeit a project, job, game, or assignment. When I start something, then I want to GET STARTED! Do not pass Go do not collect $200. Just “get on with it,” as the English like to say. This part of my personality is problematic in many respects: (1) I can easily leave people in my wake. (2) I may not know exactly which direction I should go. (3) I may be moving, but I’m not always making progress forward.

This means that transitions, especially, are excruciating for me. I feel uncomfortable, ignorant and disoriented. I expect things to move on to a new normal quickly, like, yesterday. My belief is that somehow I can expedite transition, thus eliminating the discomfort and disorientation. There are a few ways to do this, ways that I have, uh, perfected in all my years (cough, cough): (1) Pretend to not be in a time of transition. (2)  Expect everyone else to pretend they are not in the midst of a transition as well. As you can imagine, neither of these methods allow for any space in which to acknowledge our anxiety and grief about the change. As Johnny Sears explains, a contributing author in the September/October 2012 edition of Alive Now, “We short-circuit our potential for the gifts of growth and new life that transition can bring.”

I write this as FUMC/The Open Door is in the midst of a significant transition as we begin a new chapter with a staff that looks different than the last chapter. “Different” does not mean “bad.” “Different” does, however, mean “different,” and that means transition! I believe, however, that joy trumps discomfort and growth trumps disorientation. Transition is not a spiritual desert, but is lush with the Lord’s grace. “Wait for the Lord,” the psalmist writes, “be strong, and let your heart take courage.” (Psalm 27:14)

I am so excited to begin this next chapter in the life of FUMC/ The Open Door. As we all proceed, staff and laity alike, may we not simply wait in dreary anxiety, but wait with expectant joy for the Lord to work in and through us all!

Let’s begin the rest of our story.

Rev. Stacee J

LET JUSTICE ROLL

Don’t you find it interesting that the Supreme Court ruled on the Defense of Marriage Act and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act the week before we celebrate the 4^th of July?  Those rulings left me thinking about the subject of justice.

We include the phrase “with liberty and justice for all” in our Pledge of Allegiance.  The truth is that justice is often a controversial topic.  The founding mothers and fathers of the republic were —many of them—regarded as trouble-makers.  Their statements and actions often shocked their fellow countrymen who had pledged their support to England.  Even John Wesley regarded the rebels in North America with suspicion!   Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was regarded as a threat to public safety…a radical.  As were those who fought for safety in the work place, a living wage, and environmental justice.

When the prophet Amos says (5:24), “Let justice roll down like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” it is a reminder that justice is often a roaring, wild thing that alters the landscape…moves boulders… and turns upside-down what has been conventional and accepted.

Justice for me and for those who think like me, live like me, is perfectly obvious.  Justice for those who do not share my views or live like me can often seem radical and threatening.

Justice is justice, though.  Fair is fair.

Bill Moyers recently addressed the growing distress in the middle class as incomes fall.  He said that as a Baptist in Texas they were mindful of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”  We didn’t pray that each person is in it all by themselves, but that we should look out for one another, and do our best to see that people were paid a living wage, he explained.

The subject of justice is found throughout scripture.  Amos points out that having impressive worship gatherings in the name of God while tolerating injustice in everyday life is offensive to God.  “I hate, I despise your religious festivals,” God says through the prophet.  “I cannot stand your assemblies.”

While I won’t pretend to comment in detail on these decisions (I decided a long time ago not to go to law school!), I will say that the rulings lead me to think of one of the core teachings of Jesus.

Jesus says you can sum up the Law (writings of Moses) and the Prophets with this phrase (Matthew 7:12): “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”  When you are discussing what the Supreme Court has said, when you consider how we deal with questions around marriage and family and voting rights, ask yourself if we are offering our brothers or sisters what we would hope to receive from them.

I find the American experiment in democracy and justice an amazing, inspiring, sometimes troubling, hopeful journey.  When you look up at the fireworks this week, or gather with friends, or listen to Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” I invite you to pray for our nation.  I invite you to give thanks for the gift of freedom that must always be lived out with love and self restraint.  I invite you to pray for people in other nations who are taking steps towards a more just future and the inspiring mess that democracy can sometimes be (Egypt?).

And it is worth remembering that justice is almost always controversial.  It’s a wild river that turns things upside-down and unsettles the status-quo.

Happy Birthday, America!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark