Grove Presbyterian Church 2022 Lenten Devotional

  With all that we have faced over the past two years simplicity to me creates a value proposition.   Because of shut downs, supply chain issues and the great resignation era causing the cost of labor to soar we are faced with inflation.   Too much money chasing too few of goods.   And the inevitable outcome means that in the future everything will become more expensive.   It has to.    The result, I believe, will force people to live in a simpler manner, to value their relationships with one another more than their possessions, and to focus on things that are fundamental to life and to the enjoyment of life.   The difficulties we face in the world around us remind us of the importance of simplicity. Simplicity is not merely owning fewer things. It really has to do with how much energy it requires for you to live your life and how many resources it requires for you to maintain where you live, how you live, how you travel about and your other a...

  Adult discussion of this discipline often involves downsizing and cleaning out the junk accumulated in our lives, giving away items, and purchasing less. Our children have something to teach us about this discipline. The simplest of things interest a young child for hours. What parent has not noticed that the box or the bubble wrap which housed a toy is played with more than the toy itself. Tearing a napkin into pieces is more interesting than the placemat and crayon provided by the restaurant. Why do balls, sticks, sand, water, and tent making with blankets over chairs continue to be play staples while He-Man, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Rubik’s cubes, and other fad toys come and go? Children already appreciate simplicity, finding awe in the simplest of things which allows the use of the curiosity God wired into us. As adults we make things complex, wanting the things to do the work for us rather than using the gifts of curiosity and creativity.      I wonder i...

  1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one.   Mind Your Own Business Our yard has been the site of some dramatic battles between the birds who call it home. One year we had a mob of crows battling a single stubborn owl over a nest she had stolen from them. Another year a mother robin and I worked together to save her babies from a house wren that kept throwing them out of her nest. Several hawks have considered our bird feeder bait, hiding in the bushes under our window to make easy prey of the songbirds who visit, widowing several mourning doves. And one epic afternoon we had a large tree fill up with crows while the neighboring tree filled with turkey vultures, in what I could only imagine was a Jets and Sharks kind of moment. But this year we have a different kind of bird battle going on. This one is between tw...

  Some say they do not pray because they do not know how.  Others say they feel what they have to say in prayer would not be significant to God.  Some pray, but hesitantly and awkwardly because they feel intimidated.  Whatever your prayer life looks like now, I am asking you to consider a  regular prayer life  as something you  add  to your spiritual life this Lenten season. Prayer is a form of communication.  It is just that this communication is with your Creator.  As with any meaningful relationship we all know how important communication is.  Imagine if you did not speak to those around you who you consider the most important people in your life.  What if they could not tell you what you meant to them or vice versa.  In order to grow close to someone, we need to communicate how we feel and what we need.  Most importantly, know that God wants this communication between t...

The last verse of Psalm 46 reads “ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” So, what does “be still” mean? If you’re a parent, you must have said to your kids (at least once!) “oh my goodness, you need to be quiet, I’ll take care of it!” - in response to them clamoring is it ready, are we there yet, I’m hungry NOW…; t hat’s what this verse means to me. The psalm recites a litany of dire and horrible events: cataclysmic mud slides, earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, destruction of empires, then ends with the instruction to “be still”. As children of God, we can stop our clamoring, fussing, worrying, laments, because we’re confident that God knows our issues and struggles and is more than able to “take care of it”. There are many beautiful musical arrangements of Psalm 46: a simple one in our hymnal (#414), the well-known chorus that became well-known in the 1980s, contemporary, and elaborate choral settings. ...

       God speaks to us in many ways – in prayer, through scripture, through prophets, in the words of friends, with the sights of nature, and in quiet silence. But are we listening and how do we discern God’s voice from the other voices of the world?       Very young children may have trouble understanding that God can speak in these many ways. As concrete thinkers, they are listening for an actual voice. In this day, we are not as fortunate as Samuel was to hear a physical voice of God. What we can do is to teach our children to silence themselves so they can listen and to discern what they are hearing. ·          Share the 4 Voices with your children and practice discerning between them. We all have 4 voices: speaking, whispering, shouting, and singing. ·          Take a listening walk: name what you hear but take it a step further by talking about the so...

Proverbs 3:5-7 5  Trust in the  Lord  with all  your  heart      and lean not on your own understanding; 6  in all your ways submit to him,      and he will make your paths straight. The week that I met my husband was a whirlwind experience that swept us up in its intensity. At the end of that week, neither of us was eager to be ejected from the eye of this storm; but I was on Spring break, visiting friends in Indiana, and I had a train to catch back to Pennsylvania; it was time to come back to earth. In trying to delay the inevitable, we were running late for the train that would carry me away. It was on this 45-minute anxious drive to train station that we came upon the dreaded “Road Closed Ahead” sign. I was panicked. The detour was going to keep us on major roads, taking us way out of our way. We’ll never make it in time!! John calmly made a random right-hand turn onto a smaller road. “What are you doing?...