Serving

What a glorious morning!

Being in seminary and serving churches certainly meant that every moment of my day was taken up with studying and reading and preparing services and all the other work that went along with caring for the church. Spare time was not a word in my vocabulary. However, I did make time every day to take a walk. Outside the seminary was a hill. A long hill. A hill that went up through a neighborhood and ended up in a very nice park. So every day after my last class which was usually around 4:00, I headed out of the seminary and started up the hill. It was hard work walking up this hill. I would huff and puff and sigh in relief when I would finally reach the park at the top of the hill. Some days when circumstances worked out, my son and two granddaughters would go with me. Walking up the hill by myself was hard, but walking up the hill pushing a stroller would seem to be a lot harder work. That is what you would think anyway. But in reality, even with pushing the stroller with a squirmy 2 year old, the travel up the hill was actually easier when shared with others. There was just something about the walk with someone else that made it not only more effortless, but more enjoyable! Even though the trek up the hill was still a struggle, with someone else along the way it just didn’t seem as difficult. That’s what God has done for us through the church. Instead of having to struggle through life trying to live as God calls us to live all by ourselves, God has given us the people of the church to help make our journey easier. We have each other to lighten the load, to make the walk easier as we spend time together; as we lean on one another; as we gather in community to share in God’s call to be his people. God has given us brothers and sisters in the church, tied together by the love and grace of Jesus Christ, so that we don’t have to struggle through our days and years on our own. Even though our life may still throw us curves, traveling together through the tough parts of life makes it so much more comforting and even easier. God has given us each other so we never have to travel alone!

Amen!!

Joanne

These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God!