Reaching Out

Monday		High: 73	Low: 46
Day 148		9,759	4.9
Total since June 24		1,247,582	623.8

I’m very pleased that so many enjoyed yesterday’s blog. Thank you for letting me know via Facebook and email!

Yesterday evening, just around sundown, Scott and I took the girls for their long walk, because yesterday morning I had a very minor headache before church, and I just didn’t feel like it.

Down towards the end of Happy Trails Drive, Scott observed a very strange light over the Organ Mountains, about where US70 cuts through it. He thought it was one of those real talk lights that are at some interstate interchanges… except where that light was there was no interchange. We both stopped and looked trying to determine what it was!

And then as we watched it became clear… it was the full moon rising over the mountains. AWESOME sight! I attempted to photograph it with my cell phone, but the picture is so bad, there’s no point in keeping it. I’ve never watched the full moon rise over the mountains!

Monday, I was thinking some more about my experience at church Sunday. The drummers, the New World Drummers and the accompanying dancers, really moved me. Years ago, I was part of a movement that gave retreats around the country, and in various other countries around the world. One of the nine talks that was given over the course of three days talked about the concept of Grace.

Grace is the concept we are sanctified and saved through a free gift of God, that is, through God’s free gift of grace. John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, in their book “The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon”, speak of Grace as a free offer from God. They point out that God only offers us Grace, but we must accept that offer, thus making it a free gift. They refer to this gift as “distributive justice”. It’s very tempting to say “Oh, yes! I believe this!” It sounds good. But I do wonder. If Grace comes to us at God’s initiative, doesn’t saying that God makes the offer of Grace, we have to accept it, reverse that and make it OUR initiative. It’s there for the taking, but WE HAVE TO REACH OUT AND TAKE IT.

Well, whatever is the case, whether offer or gift, another way of expressing God’s Grace is that it is “the movement of God within our lives, reaching out to us.” And that is something I have no trouble embracing!

Because that movement of God within my life, reaching out to me is something I experience. I experience it in that gift of tears I mentioned yesterday. I experienced that movement of God in my life in the rhythm of drums yesterday.

DAILY GRATITUDE

I am grateful, today, for the movement of God in my life, reaching out to me.

PRAYER INTENTIONS

“God seeks shalom at every level of life, from cells to community and nations. Our unique calling is to bring God’s shalom to our relationships and the world.” — Bruce G. Epperly

This week’s theme, drawn from the tiles, is “Care.”

Fortunately, the description for “Care” fits in with my primary prayer request this week. My middle brother is still in need of prayer, as he recovers from heart surgery. Thank you!