Desert notes 9/27/11
September is coming to and end and we are beginning the season of fall. The church conference on November 8 is approaching quickly. I would like to encourage all committees to meet and turn their reports in before the end of October.
This Sunday will be a pancake breakfast I encourage all of you to come out and enjoy some time of fellowship one with another. This will take place during Sunday school time from 10: 10 AM till about 11:00 A.M. I look forward to seeing you there.
The Bells are back and looking great! Now we just need people to play them! We are having our first practice on Monday, October 3rd at 6:30 p.m. in the sanctuary. If you are interested in joining us, come on out to the practice or call Jayme Neumyer at 649-6561.
The CROP Walk is Sunday, October 9th at City Island. Registration is at 1:00 p.m. The walk begins at 1:30 p.m. The CROP Walk’s aim is to “end hunger one step at a time.” Local businesses that the CROP Walk benefits include: The Ecumenical Food Pantry, Downtown Daily Bread, The Harrisburg Uptown United Methodist Church Soup Kitchen, Loaves of Love Food Pantry, and Christian Churches United. If you are interested in walking or sponsoring a walker, please contact Kristen Lang (klippo@verizon.net/566-3250). Help end hunger one step at a time!
On Saturday, October 15th from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., all women of the church are invited to attend Mugs and Muffins. Lend A Hand ministries will be presenting the program.
Listening to Life
On the surface, making these small, discerned choices doesn’t seem to be so important. We tend to want to skip the work of it all. It can seem relentless to be aware so much of the time.
Yet these choices are the very structure of our lives. Just as the pine needle or the seed an ant brings to its hill is the stuff out of which the hill is constructed
so our choices can bring us peace or continuing chaos.
Pausing often helps us remember and value our ability to choose. Doing so with awareness, remember to ask What’s enough here and now? takes us deeper. We will find ourselves ripening into another way of being. It happens as silently and as slowly as an apple turning red.
Asking the simple question: What will serve life today? is a penetrating practice. Not what will serve me, my problems, my family, my desires or worries. Such questions only lead us to the realm of worry. When we ask, What will serve life right here and now? we begin to live in a larger picture.
Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, this question can help us focus our intentions. It is so fundamental it should lie within every small choice we make, not just the big ones. What will serve life today?