3 Reasons to Serve

Cucumbers from the garden for the food pantry.

Maybe it is because I grew up on stories of service to others. My father and uncles talked about rescuing lost and injured hikers from the Davis Mountains in West Texas. I heard about my grandfather’s work as a lifeguard in Biloxi Bay. And they talked about my Grandmother’s Sunday dinners.

Sunday dinner as service? You know it. The family was poor but there was always room for one more person at the table. Biscuits could be stretched as could the pot of beans and various home grown vegetables. There was always food for whoever came to the table.

These stories came to mind when our pastor recently talked about service. He acknowleged the fatigue that we all have living during a pandemic. Yet, he encouraged us to get out and serve others. After all, our church offers three opportunities a month as we give out sack suppers or boxes of food from the local foodbank.

Admittedly, I didn’t really feel like doing it. It is hot and humid and and and . . .

But my husband got us all in the car and off we went. We spent three hours packaging up sack suppers and handing them out to passers by. We chatted with parents who just needed a break. There was a bus rider with vision problems who needed a bit of human connection. We even encountered one of the mom’s from the swim team my son used to belong to. Serving others helped us connect with our community. That’s #1.

Several days later, I found myself working in the community garden, again beside my husband. With all the rain we’ve been having, every other week we have to pull should-high grass from the various beds. We work for about an hour in the sunshine. We listen to birdsong. We wave to preschool teachers, landscapers and others off in the distance. When we are done, I feel so much more relaxed. Whether I’m packaging up food or working in the garden, service gets me off screen. And, really? How can that possibly be a bad thing. That’s #2.

Last week, our book club discussed Faith by Jimmy Carter. I expected the book to be about his Christian faith, and it was. But it was also about his faith in humanity. And service because, as he explained, how can you BELIEVE and not feel compelled to reach out. Service isn’t essential to salvation, grace takes care of that, but really? If you believe, service is an expression of that belief.

And, that, my friends is #3. Service shows others what you believe.

It’s been almost a week and I have to tell you. I’m finding myself once again drawing inward. It is time to get back out there to serve.

–SueBE

A Prayer for Healing

Seems like there are a lot of suffering souls hereabouts. And though my hands hold no skills for restoring health, I can do what I do most often and best — pray for them.

Things are amiss:
bones need knitting,
wounds need stitching.

What we need is a carpenter,
someone with practice,
to mend and straighten,
make right and level.

Enter his shop by way of prayer.
Lie in his calloused palms;
Let him lovingly sort your joints.

Take all that is faulty
and make it well: mended
skins like a bolt of new cloth,
innards intricate as clockwork,
all ticking true time.

Seeking God in All that Grows

Social media can be a blessing. E-mail and this blog enable Lori, Ruth and I to stay in touch with each other in spite of the miles that stand between us. But last week was a blur of tweets and e-mails, heated Facebook posts and more.

Someone in one of the organizations I work with handled a question very badly on social media. She immediately realized what she had done but it was too late. The interaction had been screen-captured and shared. We spent 3.5 hours in meetings in just one day.

By the end of the week, I had little left to give. In spite of this, 400+ emails waited to be handled as did student papers and my own manuscripts. Screen time is unending, but I really needed to seek peace.

So I walked away.

Some people meet God in the kitchen, stirring and measuring and creating nutritious foods. And sometimes I choose this route.

Other people meet God in a box of paints or a ball of yarn. They create with color and texture. And sometimes I choose this route.

But the weather was mild for a Missouri summer. It wasn’t even terribly humid. So my husband and I put on our walking shoes and headed to the Missouri Botanical Garden. This is one of the places that I can go any time of the year and feel the presence of God.

In part, it is because I’m walking among mighty trees and . . . I don’t know. They look like palms or ferns and they are huge! There are pitcher plants and tiny plants with jewel-like leaves. There are gardens of delicious smelling herbs. Bees buzz around bright flowers. This trip there were even wind-blown sculptures on the lake and others shaped like origami throughout the gardens.

And there are people from all sides of the globe, speaking their many languages as they snap photos and point at the wonders before them.

There is no way that I can avoid seeing God. And as I walk and breathe deeply and bask in his presence, I feel the tensions slipping away.

I don’t know where it is that you go to feel the peace and presence of God, but can you do me a favor? Go there sometime in the next few days and refresh your soul. It is to easy to let this slide in the busy-ness of daily life. Take some time in the presence of God.

–SueBE

Blessing Accentuators

This is a picture of my mackerel-tabby, Squeaky, sitting on a cabinet in my bedroom, poking his nose through the blinds to wake me up.

When my cat wants me to wake up at the crack of dawn and I’m just not being cooperative, he clambers up onto the cabinet by the window and noisily pokes his nose through the blinds.

He’s sending a message, loud and clear: Is there food in my bowl? If not, why not? Since you’re up now (FINALLY!), are you going to play yarn-toss with me now? Or what?

People tend to do the same thing, but in a different way. They’ll come up with ways to rattle your blinds so you pay attention to them. Or it could be that they’re so involved in their own lives, they don’t realize they’re impinging on yours.

Take my neighbors, for example. Please! I jest, of course. They’re not bad. It’s just that they’ve got rambunctious youngsters who love to play on their backyard trampoline and they do so at full-volume. Today, their grandparents bought them a kiddie pool. Now they’re all screaming at the top of their lungs, splashing around, raising a ruckus and making it hard to concentrate.

But, if you think about it, my cat rattling the blinds to wake me up and my noisy neighbors are actually blessing accentuators. They point out the fact that I’ve got blessings in abundance. 

Normally, the neighborhood is peaceful. That’s why I notice the noise from my neighbors’ kids when it happens. It’s unusual.

Here is Squeaky sitting on the cabinet with the blinds now closed. The lighting from the window makes him look slightly blurry, like an animation.

Usually my cat is cuddly and loving. That’s why I notice when he’s doing something that seems obnoxious, like rattling the blinds. He doesn’t do it often. 

You may not even notice your blessings until something gets in the way of your basking in them.

Having patience with those around you when they get on your nerves will remind you how much you’ve got to be thankful for.