A MID-WEEK MESSAGE FROM REV. JULIE...

“For all Thy blessings, known and unknown,

remembered and forgotten, we give Thee thanks.”

A favorite author of mine, Frederick Buechner, has a wonderful book called The Sacred Journey where he looks back on the circumstances of his life. He recounts painful and wonderful memories from his life and somehow always finds his way back to a sense of overwhelming gratitude. The entire book can be summarized the old prayer I shared above.

I am more and more convinced with Buechner that gratitude is the key to everything. It is gratitude that is the key to a greater experience of God’s grace. A grateful heart leads to a deeper understanding of what it means to live for Christ in the world. Gratitude gives us a sense of contentment whatever the circumstances. Gratitude unlocks all of the fruits of the spirit. In fact, Paul reminds us that the whole of God’s will is a heart of gratitude. “Give thanks in all circumstances,” Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Gratitude is the key to it all!

Weeks like this one at Ashland Place UMC make it easy to center our hearts on gratitude. It has been a wild and wonderful week for us! From Consecration Sunday and our (delicious!) brunch to Pet Blessing and the Jam Session and volunteering at the Pumpkin Patch this week, my heart is FULL! I am so grateful to be in ministry with each of you. It is beautiful minister alongside a group of people who not only write out their commitment on a card once a year but live it out everyday in big and small ways.

“A crazy, holy grace I have called it. Crazy because whoever could have predicted it? Who can ever foresee the crazy how and when and where of a grace that wells up out of the lostness and pain of the world and of our own inner worlds? And holy because these moments of grace come from farther away than Oz and deeper down than doom, holy because they heal and hallow.” – Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey

I pray your heart is filled with the crazy, holy grace Buechner speaks of here. And that it fills you with gratitude for all that God is doing in and through Ashland Place UMC and you. And may that gratitude overflow into the sacred journey that is your life each and every day.

With Joy and Hope,

Rev. Julie Hare