For Such A Time as This June 8, 2020 – Dennis Lohr

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,

Gratitude!

I am so thankful for last week’s vacation!  We stayed home, worked on some yard and house projects, and spent hours enjoying quiet times on our front porch, back deck and around the fire pit.  Thanks to all who sent anniversary greetings our way.  It was good to spend the week with Sally!  Thanks to all who tended to the church’s ministries!  I enjoyed Sunday’s worship service, celebrating our graduates.  And, Becky’s sermon on the rhythm of rest seemed particularly appropriate.  If you missed it, its worth listening to. 

Change in Devotion/Announcement Email Schedule

Today’s devotion is our 70^th devotion!  Wow!  Twenty-four writers from our congregation have contributed, plus an occasional devotion from a district or denominational source.  Wow Again!  Thank you so much for all who have contributed and will continue to do so.

When we began these devotions on March 18, in light of the approaching pandemic, I had no idea the journey would be this long, and we are not at the end yet.  I regularly receive emails of gratitude for these devotions and note an average daily viewership of over 100 readers.  Yet, as things begin to open again, our resources of time and energy need to shift as well.

For the next little while, the devotion/announcement schedule will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week, with the worship service email going out on Sunday mornings.

Help Us Celebrate Father’s Day!

We are putting together a Father’s Day slide show similar to but slightly different than our Mother’s Day tribute, as part of our virtual service.  You can help by sending us a:

• Video--Take a short video of yourself sharing a brief (one or two lines) memory or message about someone important to you.
• Photo--Send a photo of someone to add to the slide show (current or past photo)

Email or text your drawing or photo to Rachel at rwitkovsky@palmyracob.org by noon on Friday, June 19.

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me.  If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.

Thank You: 

To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.

Today’s Devotion:

I have written today’s devotion.  I hope you find it meaningful.

Shalom, Dennis

Scripture – Ecclesiastes 3:1a

For everything there is a season…

Thoughts

These six words remind us that life is about change.  And whereas change might not always be what we want, it contains within it a promise.  We may fear one door closing, but soon another one opens, because even closed doors have their season.  One day this pandemic will be over.  One day this horrible and long season of racism and injustice that tears at us so, will be over.  One day, says the prophet, wars will cease.  These kinds of changes can fill us with hope.  Other changes can be more difficult – like the loss of an important relationship, or a job, or the death of a loved one.  Aging produces its own changes and challenges, but also blessings.  I loved being a teenager, but I’m okay not being one anymore.  Sally and I loved being parents of young children.  We don’t have the energy for that now.  God bless young parents.  We like being parents to adult children now.

You see, for everything there IS a season.  There is a promise it that.  What commanded our attention and energy yesterday, might not today, and tomorrow will hold a different focus.  We don’t ignore or forget the past.  We remember it and give it proper value.  We don’t ignore the present.  We engage it, for it is what we have at this given moment.  And we don’t ignore the future.  We plan for it, invest in it, anticipate it, and hopefully will enjoy it.

For everything there is a season, except one thing.  God.  We will understand, experience and encounter God in different ways in the different seasons of the year, of our lives, and of our world, but God remains in all of them.  God is God in the past, in the present, and in the future – and therein lies the promise.  The writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “I know that whatever God does endures forever.”  Great truths are often expressed in paradox: “for everything there is a season” – and – “whatever God does endures forever.” 

Prayer

Ease our anxieties, O Lord, when we feel stuck and think nothing will change, and when we think that everything is in flux and nothing will remain the same.  You are as present and as constant as the air we breathe, or even when that changes, as the spirit that dwells within us.  Amen.