Rev. Mark Pickett, Associate Pastor of Evangelism

mpickett@huntsvillefumc.org

Associate Pastor and Minister of Evangelism

Works with the Senior Pastor on assigned projects.

THOUGHTS FOR THE JOURNEY prepared by Rev. Mark Pickett

9-18-2009

LET THE LIGHT SHINE THROUGH

Last Sunday afternoon I was visiting with my fiancé. It was late afternoon and we were sitting on her porch watching the sun set, looking at the changing hues in the sky and clouds, listening to the squirrels running up and down the trees in search of pecans and watching a few birds come to her feeder for their evening meal. It was very quiet and peaceful with the exception of an occasional car or truck driving on the near by interstate.

The quiet and peacefulness was startlingly interrupted by a flamingly brilliant beam of son light shining through an ordinary clear, plastic prism topped with an ordinary, clear plastic ball on top about the size of a marble, which was hanging from a garden decoration next to the porch. It was as if the prism was made of the finest crystal, rather than ordinary plastic and it gathered the son light and reflected it outward as if it were on fire!

I’m sure that anyone versed in the laws physics would be able to explain that this event was simply the laws of refraction and how light is bent traveling through a prism which creates such a beautiful display of light. But here is the amazing thing about that ordinary plastic prism hanging from an ordinary garden decoration on an ordinary Sunday evening in Texas with the sun setting in the west over the trees and house tops.

That sculpture and prism had been in that garden for years and years. Josie had sat on her porch many, many times over those years in that exact spot and had never seen the prism shine at all. It had just hung there as part of the garden decoration. But on that Sunday evening as the sun was setting, that ordinary plastic prism, when touched by the sun, and shone like a diamond in the rough.

Isn’t that like us? Ordinary people, doing ordinary things, hanging around and living our ordinary lives, but when we are touched by Jesus the son, his light shines through us and like diamonds in the rough, we reflect his light for others to see and experience the transformation of ordinary into awe and wonder.

I hope and trust that you will receive the light of Christ today and let the light shine through.

9-8-2009 God Waiting On Us

We often find ourselves waiting on God to do something or answer our prayer or give us direction, when in fact, he may be waiting on us. In the Gospels we see Jesus in action, teaching, preaching, healing, working miracles, traveling the countryside demonstrating God’s love in all these areas. What we may not see or realize is that was only part of his ministry. The other part was in being “handed over” during the last week of his earthly life. After being “handed-over”, he was the one to whom things were being done. He’s being arrested, taken to the high priest, taken to Pilate, he’s beaten, whipped, he’s being crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross. He becomes the recipient of other people’s actions.

When Jesus went to Jerusalem, he was going to give people a choice: Will you be my disciple or will you be my executioner? There was no middle ground. God was waiting on them, would they follow or would they betray him.

In our own lives, God often waits on us to decide how we chose to live out his divine presence among us when we “are handed over”. Do we follow or betray, are we his disciples or his executioner? God waits for us to decide how God will be God in our circumstances. This is part of the mystery of work, and of friendship, and of community and of love, they are all acted upon and God waits on us.

And this too, is the mystery of God’s love for us, is that in that waiting the intensity of his love is revealed to us.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

7 28 - 2009    The Practice of Waiting

So how do we wait? Waiting together with family and friends is better than waiting alone. This is a truth I’ve learned through my new church home over the last several years. It’s not just me and Jesus any more, but rather all of us as a community of faith growing and waiting together.

The first thing Mary does after receiving the news from the angel that she is going to have a child is go to Elizabeth to share the news. As they met together they enabled each other to wait by affirming the word they had received from God. By being together, they created space for each of them to wait

What a wonderful model of the Christian family and a community of faith. Support, celebration and affirmation gathering around the promise of God that what has been spoken is growing and happening among us. The place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us. In this way we can live with courage, trusting that there is a spiritual power in us when we are gathered together that allows us to live in this world without surrendering to the powerful forces constantly seducing us towards despair.

Prayer, celebration and communion, ways in which we gather around the promise, rejoicing in what is already here and giving thanks for the Lord who has already come. Waiting together in support and nurturing one another and being shaped and alert to God’s word that comes to us in a variety of different ways. Actively, patiently, open-ended, waiting in community, it’s worth the wait.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

7 - 24 - 2009   Waiting: Wishing vs. Hope

Waiting is open ended. This makes it difficult for us because we tend to wait for something we wish to have such as another job, another car, another house, the pain to go away or just that the weather will change. We are full of wishes and our waiting can so easily get entangled in those wishes. We want the future to go in a specific direction; we want to be in control. When that doesn’t happen, we become disappointed, discouraged or worse. Our wishes tend to be connected with our fears and fear prevents us from allowing open-ended waiting in our lives.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna and Simeon were not filled with wishes but rather hope. They were trusting in the fulfillment of God’s promise to them and their waiting was open-ended. Mary did not fully understand how the angel’s word to her was going to work out or manifest itself in her life, but she trusted deeply and was open to all possibilities.

If we choose to let go of our petty and superficial wishes and trust that our lives are meaningful and precious in the eyes of God, then we may discover that something new and beyond our expectations begins to happen.

To wait with openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is choosing to hope that something is happening for us that is far beyond our own imaginings. It is giving up control of our future and letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness, and moves us away from the sources of our fears.

Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

7-23-2009   Waiting with Patience

Ever wonder how "patience", one of the fruits of the Spirit, is developed? Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. Impatient people expect the real thing to happen somewhere else, and therefore they want to get away from the present situation and go elsewhere. Living with patience implies the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.

Waiting then is not passive but involves nurturing the growth of that something, that promised word within, with hope and expectation.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

7- 22-09 Active Waiting

We normally think of waiting as very passive and because we are impatient people and waiting is frustrating and difficult. Like children waiting for Christmas morning, we want something to happen and happen now or we will feel pressured to make something happen. Gardening or farming can teach us something here about faith. Once the seeds have been planted there is a length of time in which we must wait for the seed that has been planted to germinate and grow. There are things we can do such as water and weed but we still must wait, but we wait expectantly, actively.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna and Simeon were waiting actively. They knew that in hearing the angel’s voice, a seed had been planted, a seed of faith. Here is the secret, if we wait in the conviction that the seed has been planted, and that something has already begun, it changes the way we wait. We wait expectantly, with hope. Active waiting implies being fully present to the moment with the conviction that something is happening where we are and we want to be present to it. We want to be alert and attentive waiting actively in faith that what was spoken will happen.

May you be able to wait actively, fully present to the moment to the word that has been spoken and so grow and mature in your faith.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

In Touch 7-7-2009

When one is out of touch with oneself, one cannot touch others. / Anne Morrow Lindbergh

7 - 7-2009 --- THE NATURE OF WAITING

In the beginning of Luke’s gospel we are introduced to several godly people who were waiting. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna were all waiting on God’s promise to be fulfilled in their lives. That promise was a seed of faith that had begun to grow and work in their lives and gave each of them courage to wait.

Waiting is never a movement from nothing to something, but rather a movement from something to something more. This is very important for us because we too can wait confidently for what God has already begun in us. God’s promise nurtures us, and feeds us and enables us to wait for the fulfillment of his love and purposes for us.

As you continue to wait for God’s purposes to be fulfilled in your life, may you be nurtured and encouraged and confidence that he who has begun a good work in you, will complete it.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

7-2-2009 WHEN NIGHT BECOMES DAY

There are many references to day and night in scripture. Jesus often refers to the stark contrast as the difference between God kingdom and the worldly kingdoms or the kingdom of darkness. We walk without stumbling in the light but stumble when we walk in darkness. But, when exactly does night become day.

There is a wonderful Hasidic story that illustrates this beautifully.

A rabbi was teaching his students this important truth and asked them, "How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends and the day begins?" One student offered that it was when, at a distance you could distinguish the difference between a dog and a sheep, another student suggested it was when you could tell the difference between a fig tree and a grape vine. Neither of those answers were correct. The curiosity of the students was now aroused and they wanted to know the answer to the question. The wise rabbi said, "It is when you can look into the face of another human being and you have enough light in you to recognize your brother or your sister. Until then it is night and darkness is still with us."

May we be filled today with more light than we had yesterday.

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

FINDING PEACE

Where is peace to be found? The answer is surprising, in weakness. Peace is found in our own weakness, in those places of our hearts where we feel most broken, most insecure, most in agony and most afraid. Why? Because in our weakness our familiar ways of controlling and manipulating our world are being stripped away and we are forced to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right there where we are most vulnerable, the peace that is not of this world is mysteriously hidden.

This is that peace that Jesus gives that is not of this world. Claim it, embrace it and own it for with that peace in your heart you will have new eyes to see and new ears to hear and gradually recognize that same peace in people and places where you would have least expected to find peace.

As long as we imagine and live as if there is no peace in sight, and that it all depends on us to make it come about, we are on the road to self-destruction. But when we trust that the God of love has already given the peace we are searching for, we will see this peace breaking through the broken soil of our human condition and we will be able to let it grow and heal and hear the words, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

Finding My Way Home

Henri Nouwen

6 26 09 SANCTUARY
A sanctuary is a place that restores, renews and refreshes us.
A sanctuary reminds us of what is really important.
A sanctuary is a place where we pay full attention.
When life derails us, it’s easy to play the victim of whatever the inconvenience. We set aside this moment for some more perfect moment in the future that we have planned for. But when our focus is only on our plans or our expectations we miss out on truly being alive. Our spirit is diminished if we don’t or can’t or are afraid to admit that life is bigger and wilder and more splendid and more unpredictable and more marvelous than we can imagine even in the mundane.
While sanctuary may be a place, even a very special place, it’s about what happens within, restoration, and renewal, refreshment that can allow us to be Sanctuary for others.
Adapted from Sabbath Moment: Music is everything by
Terry Hershey

6-19-2009 HUMOR THAT HEALS
For the short time I’ve been sending out Thoughts for the Journey, I don’t remember sending out anything humorous. They have been (hopefully) thought provoking regarding spirituality from my readings or personal observations.
Those of you, who know me, know that I have a pretty good sense of humor and today, while reading Nouwen, I found something that made me laugh out loud. It’s taken me half the day to give myself permission to send it out in "Thoughts", because after all, I’ve never done that before. However, Proverbs 17:22 does says that "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…"(KJV)
The "joke" was told by a man named Bill who lived at a small residential facility for mentally challenged people where Nouwen was living at the time. As dinner guests would arrive, Bill would ask, "Hey, tell me, what is a turkey in suspense?" When the guest gave up, Bill, with a big grin, shared the punch line "I’ll tell you tomorrow."
As long as I can remember, Readers Digest has always had a section entitled "Laughter is the Best Medicine". I’ve come to believe there is more truth to that than most of us want to admit especially because of Proverbs 17:22. It’s healthy to be able to laugh, even at ourselves from time to time, and sometimes often. The verse ends with these words, "…but a broken spirit drieth the bones."
A merry heart or dry bones? I’ll choose a merry heart every time.

6-18-2009

OUR NEED FOR WONDER

Without wonder we approach life as a self-help project. We employ techniques; we analyze gifts and penalties; we set goals and assess progress. Spiritual formation is reduced to cosmetics.

Without wonder the motivational energies for living well get dominated by anxiety and guilt. Anxiety and guilt restrict; they close us in on ourselves; they isolate us in feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness; they reduce us to ourselves at our worst. Instead of being formed by the Spirit that hovered over the waters and raised Jesus from the dead, we are malformed into lives of moral workaholism or pious athleticism.

Eugene Peterson

Roadblocks on the Journey

What do we do when our spiritual journey runs into roadblocks? When waiting makes us anxious and angry? Waiting seems like a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. We are encouraged to look at waiting from two perspectives: the waiting for God and the waiting of God. Most of us think more about the first perspective, but as we grow in our awareness of God waiting and longing for us, we discover the deepest love there is—God’s love.

Henri Nouwen

DO YOU HAVE LOVE?"Love is not something you have. Love is something that has you. You do not have the wind, the stars and the rain. You don’t possess these things; you surrender to them. And surrender occurs when you are aware of you illusions, when you are aware of your addictions, when you are aware of your desire and fears."

Henri Nouwen

Deceased Catholic clergyman

Finding My Way Home

The Journey

Our spiritual journey calls us to seek and find this living God of Love in prayer, worship, spiritual reading, spiritual mentoring, compassionate service to the poor, and good friends. Let us claim the truth that we are loved and open our hearts to receive God’s overflowing love poured out for us.

Henri Nouwen

Finding My Way Home