09/25/2019
As I sit today on my back porch working on my upcoming sermon, I find myself thinking a bit differently about the back porch, which I love. This last year I was able to replace the screens with windows. I always loved my screened porch but the windows allow me to spend more time there. It is easily my favorite room in my house.
The thing about windows is I see the outdoors all around me and they keep the bugs away from me, but the glass seems to be more of a barrier than the screens were---if that makes sense. Although I see all around me, I have more of a feeling of being in a building than out-of-doors. So there are advantages and disadvantages either way.
And now, this series has me thinking more about how often I spend time out-of-doors in the front of my house which makes me feel a bit guilty about wanting to retreat to my back porch for times of solitude. If you have followed the current sermon series at all on neighboring, I wonder if you feel challenged as I do.
Very possibly I am thinking about this too much!!! Do you ever do that??? But I do believe that as we continue to strive to live faithful to God’s calling and to grow in the ways we live out that calling, we do enter into times of challenge in our lives.
I have decided that I need to establish a healthy balance. Yes, I need to make connections with my neighbors. Yes, I need to have times of quiet and solitude to rest my soul and my mind. ( I do--I am assuming most folks look for this time too!). I believe at this point in my life I need to shift the balance a bit more to front yard neighboring. As I pay attention to the culture of today and as I drive around and rarely see anyone in their front yards, this may be the case for many. I have said in one of my messages that we are living with too much isolation, fear and misunderstanding today. I know that one of the ways that each of us can become a part of the solution to resolve these issues is to be a better neighbor.
So hope to see you out front some time!!! Blessings, Patti
Archived Posts
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...