Dear First
Methodist Family,
Something dynamic happens when we recognize God’s hand is there for us in the darkness. Once we realize that God is always there, we are ready to take on any challenge. We are ready to take God’s hand in trust, and learn to replace fear with courage.
I love reading about the animal kingdom. I was reading about bats recently and learned something new. In the first place, bats bear their young life upside down on the ceiling of caverns – sometimes eighty or more feet from a solid rock floor. The tiny offspring cling to their mothers momentarily before they climb out onto the rocky ceiling, where they hang. Far below them in the darkness, on the cavern floor, is death to a bat.
Now, though they have survived the initial crisis of an upside down, high altitude birth, that’s nothing compared to the next challenge. Once a baby bat has reached a certain maturity, it must risk letting go of the ceiling for the first time, stretching its wings. At that moment, the baby bat has eighty feet to fall – or fly. But it must let go!
We can learn a lesson from the bats. It is one thing to say we want to take hold of God’s hand, but if we are constantly hanging back, we will never be all that God wants us to be. Like the bats, we must let go if we are ever going to learn to fly.
|
|
|
I’m convinced that God has great plans for our church and for our lives. We experienced some of that during Confirmation Weekend and Mother’s Day Sunday. In Confirmation, young people reach out and claim God’s promise of life and power. In Mother’s Day we honor the risk of love that every mother takes in the birth of a child. Both faith moments require a turning from fear to faith. I believe these are choices we must make every day to live an effective and abundant Christian life.
Summer is almost here. This Sunday, May 18th, we’ll honor our seniors; at the very same time, the travel time of summer begins. When graduations begin, summer is not far away; and when summer begins, people begin making travel arrangements: some for a week or two, some for the summer; and for some of our graduates, they’re off to college for a year or more. Our summer messages will have a travel theme to them which will certainly fit the summer season. On May 18th, a three-week series, “Travel Intersections,” begins with the first message for Senior Sunday with “Crossroads to Power.” I’ll be talking about the power for living that God provides. It’s an important message for our seniors, but its also an important message for each of us.
