13. June 2009 by Pastor Pamela.

Don’t forget: One more puppet show on Wednesday, June 24^th at 6:37 PM at SLPL. Come, and find out how the story about the little witch ends!

REGULAR events at South Lyon Power & Light:

(Summer schedule)

Sundays:                   8:15 AM              Worship team rehearsal

9:10 AM               Worship

Wednesdays:            10-11 AM            Breakfast of Hope for unemployed

(June: at 1^st Presbyterian Church, July: at 1^st United Methodist Church, August: at Fellowship Evangelical Presbyterian Church, September: at South Lyon Power & Light)

6:00 PM             Puppet Show Practice (if needed)

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13. June 2009 by Pastor Pamela.

Recently Pr. Pam spent some time at St. Augustine’s House, which is an ELCA Lutheran monastery in Oxford, MI. Now that I come to think of it, it would have been good to join her for this retreat. But when she asked me to come along, I refused because I figured that I would be a pretty bored teddy bear there. I didn’t think that I could make it without, TV, internet and phone for four days. Only prayer, reading and worshipping didn’t seem to be the right thing for me. But after she told us about her experience I actually think I might have had a good time. Only the prayer times at the chapel seemed to be a little challenging:

5:10 AM Vigils, 6:00 AM Lauds, 8:15 Terce, 8:30 Holy Eucharist, 12:00 noon Sext, 2:30 PM None, 6:00 PM Vespers, and 8:30 PM Compline. At first I was very skeptic when she told us that she participated in ALL of them – every day. I am having a hard time believing that she got up at 4:30 every morning in order to make it to Vigils in time. Except from the readings, and sermon and prayer during the Holy Eucharist the whole prayer or liturgy was being chanted. I have the impression that she enjoyed that very much.

Meals were taken in silence, only accompanied by readings and music. There were also certain periods of silence during the day. Yes, I know: it’s hard to imagine that people can actually enjoy this. But Pr. Pam mentioned that this monastery structure helped her a lot to re-focus on God.

It did take her a little while to find the inner peace though. She said, she felt like a detoxicating drug addict during the first two days because she was exposed to her spinning thoughts so much (a lot of quiet time, remember). But once she got past that point, she was better able to hear God’s voice and listen to what God was telling her.

I am telling you this because I think it is a great example of how important spiritual discipline is. It helps us to focus more on God instead of focusing on ourselves all the time. Our lives are way too busy (even the life of a teddy bear!), and it is so easy to slip into a doing – mode. We have the feeling that we must do more, do better,  do the right thing. But what IS better? What IS the right thing? Very often we think that we know the answer. The problem is that this is our perspective, but not necessarily God’s perspective. This is why it is so important to make more room for God’s voice in our lives.

I am aware that making this kind of room is not so easy, because we are busy people (and busy bears). It requires exercise. That doesn’t mean you have to get up at 4:30 in the morning in order to be ready for prayer at 5:00 AM. But it means that you set some time of the day apart for God. And you don’t have to read scripture, or do devotion. You can just spend it in silence. Try to find a place that is quiet, and where you won’t get disturbed or distracted, and then just listen. Listen to what God is telling you.

By the way: Pr. Pam was told at St. Augustine’s House that sleeping is actually a form of worship. This is probably the reason why the residents there sleep so much.

So, this is what I am going to do right now: Take a nap – and worship God!

Yours Pelle

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