Dear Caldwell,
Every day, I see how you bless each other. Whether you are old friends or new acquaintances, you not only connect but you care for one another throughout the week in so many considerate and loving ways. Through small gestures or major investments of time and energy, you know – and act on – what it means to be church family. As those who are blessed, you are blessings to each other, and it is a blessing for me to witness. You demonstrate what Henri Nouwen was writing about in the passage I used to close my sermon Sunday. I’ve attached that passage from his book Life of the Beloved at the bottom of this post in case you want to spend some more time with it.
As we travel from Sunday to Sunday this week, a few other things:
- We have a particular situation that calls for our prayer and focus. Tomorrow, Dee Blackburn will undergo very serious surgery on her spine (actually, in her spine) to remove two masses. I don’t need to explain more about the implications of very delicate spinal surgery and what is at stake for Dee’s physical movement after this procedure. She has been blessed through two rounds of this same surgery before but each time is so highly delicate and risky. So, I ask for your prayers tomorrow throughout the day for Dee and her partner of 23 years, Betsy West. In fact, today is their 23rd anniversary. In addition, you can help them out through a Caring Bridge website, which I will share later this week. For now, through, they ask for prayer for strength and safe delivery through the hours and days ahead.
- Also, Jackie Abernethy is back in the hospital with a nagging intestinal infection. CMC Main.
Gatherings this week:
- Theology on Tap at Leroy Fox restaurant Tuesday at 7 p.m.
- Sacred Relationships: Becoming the Beloved – Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Youth Lounge in Price.
From Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved, chapter titled “Blessed:”
“I must tell you that claiming your own blessedness always leads to a deep desire to bless others. The characteristic of the blessed one is that, wherever they go, they always speak words of blessing. It is a remarkable thing how easy it is to bless others, to speak good things to and about them, to call forth their beauty and truth, when you yourself are in touch with your own blessedness.
“The blessed one always blesses. And people want to be blessed! This is so apparent wherever you go. No one is brought to life through curses, gossip, accusations or blaming. There is so much of that taking place around us all the time. And it calls forth only darkness, destruction and death. As the ‘blessed ones,’ we can walk through this world and offer blessings. It doesn’t require much effort. It flows naturally from our hearts. When we hear within ourselves the voice calling us by name and blessing us, the darkness no longer distracts us. The voice that calls us the Beloved will give us words to bless others.”
Yours In Christ,
John