Newsletter Article May 2, 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Here are some random thoughts to digest this week:
- If Jesus spoke more about the Kingdom of God than any other subject, why is it that we hear so little discussion about what it is?
- Spring always reminds me that I can’t always trust my senses. It always seems to me as if the flora and fauna explode into bloom overnight and I never see it coming . . . I think God sometimes works this way in my life.
- I wonder why my prayer life is always in disarray – some weeks I pray long and often and others I just don’t find the time. I would love to be as disciplined as Martin Luther who said that the busier he became the more hours he prayed everyday (yes, you read that correctly - “hours”).
- I am enjoying reading the stories from the Bible to my 5-year olde daughter Faith, because the questions she asks and the delight she shows for the stories have rekindled the memories of awe that I had for the stories as a child. It is a great gift God gives us to reencounter the joys of our childhood in the eyes of our children.
- For centuries the primary impulse for creating great art was God. Today, it seems as if the Christian world and the Art world are two worlds apart; that doesn’t make sense to me. I agree with Dorothy Sayars that one of the ways in which we are made in God’s image is our ability to be creative, and I fear that we in the Church stifle that creative ability sometimes . . .
- It heartens me to know that God loves me, even on my worst day . . .
- Finally, the older I get, the more I see the hand of God in everyday life. As a youth, I saw God primarily as a Judge, as a young man I saw God primarily as Inspiration to Shake Up the World, and now I am beginning to appreciate that God is Savior, Lord, Friend and Artist and has given us a beautiful life and world to enjoy. William Blake said that when you can see the work of God in a blade of grass, you are beginning to understand . . . Selah

In Christ,

Steve