Living life with steps of faith

Memorial Day Service 2013 Music Introductory Thought: Memorial Day is a federal holiday in which we remember and honor those men and women who died while serving in the United States military.   It takes place on the final Monday of May.   Memorial Day has its origin in Decoration Day, a day that was set aside to remember the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. Today, people across the United States will be going to gravesites to place U.S. flags and flowers.   Not only will our military be remembered, but also other loved ones who have gone before us. Invocation: In recognition of the meaning of this day, let us pray: Heavenly Father,   You have been our refuge and our strength, our peace and our hope during times of trial.   You have called us to be your own and to give you priority in our life as individuals and as a nation.   You have been attentive to our needs as a nation and protected our freedoms and our people. And

I went to the doctor today and he said, "Worse case scenario, it is _____."  I started thinking about that statement, "Worse case scenario" and began to fill the blank in with all of the possibilities my mind could come up with. After each I asked myself if that really would be the worse case scenario and with each I could see an opening for the grace of God.  What might be defined as a worse case scenario from a doctor's perspective, from a Christian's perspective might not be all that bad.  Actually, a doctor's worse case scenario might be a Christian's best case scenario.  And what I realized is that with Christ there is no worse case scenario because in every scenario God wins!

This Sunday I fell off a member of my church's pedestal.  And it hurt some when I fell.  From this person's perspective, I had done wrong; from my perspective, I acted with grace in alignment with the church's teaching.  I have to admit that I don't like having people not pleased with me.  I want to correct or fix the situation.  But what I realized today as I sat before God, contemplating the wise words of a woman of prayer in our church and the words just read of Jean-Pierre de Caussade, I should celebrate and be glad that I fell, because I never should have been on the pedestal in the first place. I can come up with very human reasons as to why God is blessing us as a gathered community of faith right now.  I can also come up with very spiritualized reasons.  But I know that according to God's word and my life experience that it rains on both the righteous and the unrighteous.  We may be in a season of blessing right now, but I am sure we will also have seasons

I was just reflecting upon some of the differences between younger and older workers, primarily differences in what they find motivating to work.  In a situation where one has to choose between not having a job and working in a negative work environment, I think younger workers choose not having a job and older workers choose working in a negative work environment.  When considering incentives, if offered either an increase in pay or more vacation time. I think overall older workers would choose the increase in pay and younger workers would choose more vacation time.  What do you think are some of the other differences? Note, this blog was first accidentally published on another blog of mine on January 30th, 2013.