Dear Jennifer,

I am here to repeat the trope that we live in complicated times. I find it so challenging how we are set up by social media and the profit motives of the 24-hour news cycle to retrench into our own beliefs.

I believe it is an act of courage to change one’s mind. As we are exposed to new experiences and learn new information throughout our lives, we might shift positions many times. Listening to what others share with us is a particular privilege, and they bring perspectives that may not have occurred to us. I think we often disagree out of heartfelt and deeply held beliefs, but we could choose to turn to curiosity instead of judgment, an open heart instead of shutting down. We could choose to engage more fully instead of giving up on one another.

Peace,

Laura

Please join us immediately following the Sunday service for the Congregational Meeting.

(in-person in the sanctuary or online via Zoom).

bit.ly/SVPCCongregationalMeeting

Theme for Sunday

“You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.” 

Henri Nouwen

• Consider a time you changed your mind about a significant belief. What led you to this moment of transformation?
• How do you invite others into conversations about matters on which you have a difference of perspective?
• What do you do to keep yourself open to integrating new information and insights?

Jonah 3:1-10



The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.