Every Person you Meet is...

   Babies want to look around and see the world, as they develop, but especially want to find other eyeballs with which to connect. It happened to me twice last week. First, standing in the entrance of a large auditorium in the middle of a worship service on Thursday, I spent a few minutes exchanging glances with an infant child, being bounced by his mother, as she swayed back and forth in that soothing pattern every parent holding a child knows so well. Later in the week, standing in line at Kroger, I realized the eyes of a child, no older than 6 months, were fixed upon me from one row over. Each moment prompted me to smiled and marvel at the miracle of life before me. I also appreciated the care-free life of children, that the world too quickly takes away.

   I believe the simple ritual of looking a person in the eyes is a part of the larger spiritual practice of seeing a person as the Beloved of God. How can we claim to love someone if we do not know them? How can we claim to know someone if we do not look at them? 

   A word of wisdom, shared with me in my first year of ministry, over 17 years ago, continues to return with truth and goodness. It is a word that helps me to see those I encounter in a deep, spiritual way, that even my eyes cannot see. The word is:

Be aware, every person you meet is fighting a great battle.

This piece of wisdom might not apply to those infants, being gently held and rocked as the world moved around them, but it is surely true for everyone else. I find that seeing others in this way changes my approach to them.
   Despair, debt, fear, fatigue, finances, marriage, childlessness, injustice, hopelessness - these are but a short list of the battles any of us are facing this day. Can we see into the eyes of those we greet and offer the kindness of Christ in the midst of the battles others are waging? Can we point them to a place of surrender, knowing that not every battle is even ours to fight?
   Grace and peace, Scott

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