Skip to main content

Seeing More than Stumbling Blocks

Below is my contribution to the annual devotional booklet for Light a Candle for Children Prayer Vigil. Clearly I'm way behind in posting this but here it is.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Seeing More than Stumbling Blocks
Jeremiah 6:21
There are days I struggle to get tasks completed because I don’t understand them. It’s a blessing when one of the church children come up and magically move things or hit a button and things just work. Children see more than stumbling blocks and make a difference because they believe that they can do anything. They haven’t heard society tell them what/who they are or are not yet.
Children have a unique way of seeing a different perspective. Jeremiah addressed God’s people, who often refused to change their hearts and see differently. It’s not the most loving thing to put a stumbling block in our way. But sometimes blocks help us to slow down and re-evaluate the situation. The Church has the blessing of children to let us see things in new and exciting ways. The Church now must learn to protect children from things that want to limit who children are and will become and show them that they are loved through all of their searching – in their becoming who God has created them to be.
Prayer: Sometimes God I get so caught up on the things that are not important that I forget to be who you created me to be. Help me to remove the stumbling blocks from the vision and to look and explore just as a child sees with joy, excitement, hope and endless possibilities. Amen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Can you quote the Bible?

In a conversation with a more conservative Christian then me (take in mind I call myself a bed-wetting liberal and I’m also a big time Process Theologian) the person started rambling off scripture quotes (proof texting really) to make a point. I have never claimed to be a great memorizer of anything. And even though I have read the Bible many times and own many copies of the Bible, I am still not a person who can just pull out scripture references in mid conversation. I do have several verses that I turn to and love dearly but I can’t tell you word for word what John 2:5 or Ruth 1:4 says. This got me thinking, why do Christians really feel the need to qualify their faith based on the amount of scripture that they can recite from memory? While it may be very handy to be able to quote scripture in a variety of situations, I believe that this can be dangerous. Proof texting (pulling scripture, from any religion, to support an argument without careful and learned consideration for its cont

Conflict in a Church - 1

As I watch a congregation I’m very familiar with spiral out of control I’m forced to sit and reflect on what went so wrong? Why does it seem like the only options are to either fire the minister or close the doors? When I think back the problems began before this minister was even hired. This is a congregation that wants to and likes to say that it’s a welcoming and friendly place. But in reality it isn’t and hasn’t been for the 20 some years I’ve known it. Groups of people made sure that other people knew that they were below them. They were operating then on the mentality that we did this 50 years ago so we need to keep doing it. And as for being welcoming… well with you weren’t middle-class, preferably upper middle-class and white well don’t bother walking through the door. These are all issues that existed 20 years ago and were never addressed. And shockingly these are still issues in the congregation today. Clearly this church has decided to put its head in the sand and live in th

4th of July Worship

I am an American; born here in the USA, lived here all of my life. I do like this country. I don’t always agree with the way it works or who’s running it but I’m here and I know that there are millions of people who are less fortunate in the world then me. I am thankful that I have the rights that I have and the access to so much. I know the “Star Spangled Banner” and I sing patriotic songs and like most of them. However, on July 4th Sunday (or the Sunday closest to the 4th of July), I find it hard to be in worship in congregations that structure the theme around God Bless the USA/America. I find it hard to sit there and look at church chancels that are adorned with the American flag and if people noticed where I sit it’s so it’s not in my eyesight while I worship. It bothers me that people get all festive, wearing red, white and blue to worship, but can’t remember the colors of the liturgical year. This bothers me because as Christians we are called to worship the God of all people