Monthly Archives: September 2011

I offered a challenge to our church congregation today.

I suggested that they pray at least 42 times this coming week.  Each prayer time would be ten seconds long.  Using the following prayer:

God, help me to

• See Thee more clearly
• Love Thee more dearly
• Follow Thee more nearly

Day by Day

I explained that this prayer (which became a song in the 1960’s musical “Godspell”) was a written prayer of Richard of Chichester in 1235 AD, and was based on Colossians 1:10 (check out how John Wycliffe translated that verse!).

Today I encouraged people to pray the prayer 3 times.  Tomorrow (Monday) four times (breakfast, lunch, supper, bed time), Tuesday five times, Wednesday six times, Thursday seven times, Friday eight times, and Saturday nine times – for a total of seven minutes of prayer during the week.

But that seven minutes could change your life.  See what God may say to you!!!!

Pastors are said to be on call 24/7.

When I hear that appellation, “on call”, I cringe.  We have had doctors lately who found that their family lives were devastated by the suffocation of constant accessibility.  Oil crew workers get the same call and the divorce rate can attest to the problems that arise.

Today I was called to an unscheduled hospital visit.  The patient is fine – the rush to the hospital a wise precaution. 

The call came in the midst of other duties.  My reaction almost surprised me!  “This is what I’m here for!”  No sense of infringement, or dislike or even reluctance.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt when my wife was also eager to attend a visit to the hospital.

So we sat, chatted with relatives, prayed and provided what service we could.  Perhaps this is really a case of “listening for the call” rather than feeling that I am “on call!”

In marriage counseling sessions recently I’ve come to realize how little we do together when we are together.  Couples complain that “we don’t spend enough time together!”

After a few minutes of discussion the obvious becomes obvious.  Most couples are together in the same room or the same building or the same vicinity for extended periods of time each day.  But when confronted about how long they spend together each day, the tally is often perceived as only mere minutes, if at all.

So, what are we really saying when we say “we don’t really spend time together?”  How do you understand this statement?

In a gesture of good will, our local Extra Foods has been allowing us to bring our own bags for grocery shopping – and even reward us!  The number of bags that we have brought to use is charged to the bill and then debited off the bill.  In that way, we receive “points” based on the original charge. 

At least, that’s my understanding.

Today, the amount was charged, but the cashier could not debit the charge afterwards (didn’t have automatic authorization). 

As we see it, we were charged a penny for each bag that we brought!  The store did not sell us a bag.  The store did not provide a bag for us. 

We brought the bag.  And we were charged for bringing the bag (OK, our helpful cashier was able to void the charge with a little direction from us).

So now, instead of receiving a reward for bringing our own bags, we are penalized, and charged money for bags that we own.

Something doesn’t seem right here!