the Eclectic Soul

Word!

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.[e] 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Romans 12.9-13 NRSV

Disturb Us Indeed....

Disturb Us, O Lord
By Archbishop Desmond Tutu, adapted from a prayer by Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, O Lord
when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord
when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord
to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show Thy mastery,
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes
and invited the brave to follow.
Amen.

Am I My Own Messiah?

Ok, so this is a restart of my blog that has been dormant for way too long.....

i was thinking about preaching this morning (after all that's what I do).  i began to look back on last years preaching schedule when i realized that i only took ONE vacation sunday last year....ONE!?  

to be sure, i had 3 other sunday's "off" but they were due to my traveling for 1) a youth retreat, 2) my annual denominational meeting, and 3) to invite a colleague to "rock the mic" for a particular message in a series i was doing.  

as a pastor in the united methodist church, i am entitled to four weeks vacation per year (which includes 4 sundays away from the pulpit).  i began to wonder what affect it has on my ability to communicate the central truths of the scriptures if i do not, from time to time, pull back and allow someone else to take the reigns.

as i look forward into 2014, you can bet that i plan to do a better job in this area of what we call in the biz, "self-care."  after all, am i my own messiah? no, thankfully, i'm not!

in faith, hope, & love,

E