Jonathots Daily Blog
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You might find the picture I’ve selected for this morning’s essay to be a bit odd. After all, considering the possibilities of objects and people available to me at the Stephens City United Methodist Church, to focus on a plant sitting between two chairs might certainly be considered obtuse.
Yet as I arrived in the foyer yesterday morning, this vision leaped out at me. It prompted a notion: something is growing in the midst of the furniture.
Feeling very blessed to be invited to share with the church on Pastor Bob’s final Sunday, I came with an open heart and a yearning soul.
Hearing reports of treachery in Orlando and the pernicious inhumanity that continues to speckle the globe, I was in need of a baptism of hope with a refreshing splash of good cheer. For after all, the world will not be changed through contemplation, but instead, by each one of us concentrating on what is good, pure and worthy of praise.
So I salute the Stephens City United Methodist Church because it is a plant growing in the midst of all the religious decor.
1. They stood at the door and welcomed us in without exuding the “sneer of beholding the queer.”
2. They tried to find reasons to help us. They wanted to connect. It was so refreshing to see other human beings who were prepared to link.
3. They sat close to us in the sanctuary rather than perching themselves far away.
4. They clapped their hands when we played “I’ll Fly Away” instead of acting like a bunch of music critics on America’s Got Talent.
5. They believed in belief. Most people recite belief instead of holding the conviction that it still has power.
6. They honored Pastor Bob, who had served them for 730 days, and blessed him as he headed for the new assignment procured by the United Methodist Church.
7. They sang with the gusto of passion instead of being careful not to be heard.
8. They laughed without fear. They laughed without reservation. And they laughed like they were supposed to be laughing.
9. They cried because they cared. Maybe it was the thought of so many dead fellow-Americans who were attacked by a maniac that made their hearts a little more sensitive. I don’t know, but they were willing to be touched.
10. They gave because they understood, not because it was required.
11. And they are blessed because they are blessed.
Maybe I caught Stephens City on a good day. Yet the real pulse of our country is not in the devastation of a night club in Orlando. It is when we realize that life is short and each one of us is fragile, so we decide to express our feelings freely.
The good news is that Pastor Bob labored well.
But the better news is that there is something growing in the midst of the furniture.
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