PASTOR’S PEN
They Refashion Who They Are
Tonight (Thursday) we start our book discussion group on “The Second Mountain” by David Brooks. It will be in the Red Room at 7 PM.
In preparing for our discussion, I came upon these words that really spoke to me. “When people make generosity part of their daily routine, they refashion who they are. The interesting thing about your personality, your essence, is that it is not more or less permanent like your leg bone. Your essence is changeable, like your mind. Every action you take, every thought you have, changes you, even if just a little, making you a little more elevated or a little more degraded.”
In the Church we talk about Spiritual Formation. This involves spiritual practices that form us in the faith over time. Worship, prayer, bible study, devotional reading, and acts of service have a way of elevating us over time to a life we would not have had otherwise.
Brooks says, “The people who radiate a permanent joy have given themselves over to lives of deep and loving commitment. Giving has become their nature, and little by little they have made their souls incandescent. There’s always something flowing out of the interiority of our spirit. For some people it’s mostly fear or insecurity. For the people we call joyful, it’s mostly gratitude, delight, and kindness.”
In joy,
Steve
God-given Boundaries of Human Existence
Because of some extreme legislation by a few states, abortion is back on the front burner in our country and many women are feeling under attack. This is extremism at its worst and it keeps the culture wars ignited. While the extremes of the right and left war over this issues, the majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle on this issue. Though I don’t always agree with them, The Social Principles of The United Methodist Church are a prayerful and thoughtful effort on the part of the General Conference to speak to the human issues in the contemporary world from a sound biblical and theological foundation. I share with you here a portion of what our Social Principles say about abortion.
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Pastor Steve Lundin
