Jesus is Alive through our Church

   Since starting as the Bishop of the South Georgia Conference as September, Lawson Bryan has kept our focus steadily on the question, "Where are we alive together in Christ?" He loves the verses from Ephesians 2, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..."
   It was my friend Allison Lindsey, who helps coordinate disaster response for the 650 UMC congregations in South Georgia, who referred to the amazing "ALIVE sightings" during the past month of storms. She included local churches opening as shelters, Wesleyan College opening their campus to evacuating families of their students, and our Methodist Children's Home in Macon hosting the Florida Methodist Home kids and staff.
   I've seen and heard of similar amazing "ALIVE" sightings in our own church just this week:

• A mom and her two sons spent all day Tuesday serving local older couples, they'd never met before, in their yards
• A family pooling their $10 talents to provide care packages for utility workers
• Another family baking and delivering cookies and drinks to utility workers all over Houston County as they worked 
• One woman coordinating a host of others to prepare meals to feed evacuees housed at Trinity UMC
• People donating diapers and wipes to help flooded families in Texas
• One family of three donating filled UMCOR cleaning buckets and then collecting money to fill more of them
• Others opening their homes to welcome people without power

   Hear Paul's words, again, "God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ." Jesus is alive in Houston County when his church loves its neighbors! Grace and peace, Scott

In the Good and the Bad, Where Do You Turn?

   It is now easier than ever to stay connected.  Through the advances of technology, specifically telecommunications and high-speed transmission of data and signals, we are able to see and hear the news from nearly corner of the world and even out into the galaxies.  This new ability to connect has opened up amazing new possibilities that we are just beginning to explore.  We are now able to peer over the fences of the world to see and learn and know even more.

   This new accessibility leads us back into some well-worn ruts, however.  Take happiness, for instance.  We have always been too interested in keeping up with our neighbors.  We have always turned too quickly to measuring against someone else's reality rather than searching our own hearts for answers to how we are doing (think of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4).  Thomas Merton wrote,

Why can we not be content with the secret gift of happiness that God offers us, without consulting the rest of the world?  Why do we insist, rather, on a happiness that is approved by the magazines and TV?  Perhaps because we do not believe in a happiness that is given to us for nothing.  We do not think we can be happy with a happiness that has no price tag on it.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 1966

   We look to others for approval and affirmation of our right place in more than just happiness, though.  We do the same in difficult times, don't we?  

   Our world right now is overrun with sadness.  It comes in cycles, but this cycle seems to be particularly deep and more disturbing.  The earthquake that rocked Japan and the resulting tsunami have shaken every person alive.  The continuing coverage of terror, desolation, and possible nuclear crisis appears to have no end.  Combine with it national debates and bad-behavior in politics, with local stories of taxes, murder, and failing test scores, and we are overcome by a wave of negativity.  

   So where do we turn when things go wrong?  Your answer to that question will shape your whole life.  If you listen to the rest of the world, then our views will naturally follow those of the world.  Right now much of the world is taken by pessimism, dejection, terror, anger, resentment, and despair.  

   The scriptures tell a different story.  In the midst of heartache there is hope.  In the midst of desolation there is promise.  When things arrive at the worst they could be, God is present in amazing ways.  From the days of Noah, to Moses and captives in Egypt, to disciples scared and running for their lives from a hill in Palestine, God is at work saving the world.  This is not the lead story on the news channel, and it probably not what the guy behind you in line is saying, but it is the truth.  It is the Gospel.  It is the Good News that will save the world.  God is present, even in the storm.

   Grace and Peace to you, Scott