Money, Money

The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.

Edith Wharton
US novelist (1862 – 1937)

 4 Give up trying so hard to get rich. 

 5Your money flies away before you know it,  just like an eagle suddenly taking off.

 Proverbs 23:4-6 (Contemporary English Version)

Scripture verse provided by BibleGateway.com

I think (and worry) about money much more than I’d like to. I don’t like to balance my checkbook and find the whole topic of finances to be confusing at best. I’d rather not think about money at all, but I doubt that I’ll ever have so much as to be able to forget about it! Right now I’m just hoping I can pay all the bills next month.  Any money I have certainly does seem to fly away, in spite of my constant efforts to cut costs and make an extra buck here and there. 

I have no desire to be “rich”,  just “financially secure”. The truth is, I will probably never achieve either of those states. So where does that leave me? Just trusting God, that’s where. I’ll do my best, pray for guidance, and trust that my needs will be met in one way or another. I admit, I can’t handle my life or my money on my own. I need all the help I can get!

 

Be still my soul and drink of the deep clear water of your God.

Photo taken by Nancy in Colorado, July 2007

Why Pray?

 Upper Room Daily Reflection for August 27

JESUS’ TEACHING SHOWS that the purpose of our praying is not to provide information to God, as though God were not paying attention to our situation. Nor is prayer our way of giving advice so that God might make the world a better place. Prayer’s ultimate purpose is to deepen our intimacy with a God who wants to be in a personal relationship — one that’s akin to the healthiest, most life-giving affection between parents and children.

- Terry A. DeYoung
The Upper Room Disciplines 2007

From page 220 of The Upper Room Disciplines 2007 by Steve Harper

Balance is Everything

It rained this morning here in Delaware, Ohio. Not a particulary momenteous event perhaps, but it has been quite dry and I’m sure the plants outdoors are somehow thanking their Creator at this moment.

I am mindful though of all the places in the world where there has been too much rain of late. Rain can be good, or it can be bad; it all depends on the timing and the amount. It’s like that with a lot of things. A little wine in the evening can be a very good thing, a lot in the afternoon a very bad thing. Two or three cute little squirrels playing in my yard are nice, but if I had three dozen it would be horrifying. Even the Bible, the good and life-giving Word, can seem like a bad thing when one is being ‘beat over the head’ with it by some overzealous fundamentalist preacher! Several shorter paragraphs in a blog post is a good thing, but I usually stop reading if it the paragraphs are long and there are many of them - so I’ll stop here.

Balance is everything.  Lord, bring balance into my life, I pray. Bring balance to this unbalanced world in which we life. Amen

Hello World!

This blog is the new and (hopefully) improved version of  Along the Way/Along the Way of Grace previously published at blogspot.com. I’ve imported the old blog in it’s entirety, but will be deleting (possibly) many of those old posts and re-categorizing everything as time allows.

Change is exciting, so stop again and find out what life is like with Ladygrace.

Water

Watching the rushing water of a river in Rocky Mountain National Park, I began to think about the nature of water.

“What if,” I wondered, “a water molecule from a stream or pond in Ohio evaporated into the air, was carried up really high and went west, then fell as part of a raindrop onto this mountain and is now flowing in this river…?”

Wow!

Then the voice of the One who made the water, and me, spoke very quietly over the roaring of the water. “Water doesn’t fight, it just flows. Be as water, and I can take you all kinds of places.”

Jesus, my Beloved, help me to be as water.

Authority Without Wisdom

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge,

fitter to bruise than polish.”

Ann Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Prayer for Today

GOD WHO MAKES all things new,

forgive me when I insist

on doing and thinking the same old things.

Open me to hear

all the voices of possibilities

in your creation.

Amen.

- Alive Now
From page 62 of Alive Now, March/April 2007.
Copyright © 2007 by The Upper Room.

There’s No Place Like Home

This morning I went to visit a Methodist minister friend at her church. It was a small rural congregation and the people seemed enthusiastic about being there. If there’s one hymn I’d associate with the Methodist’s it’s “Victory in Jesus”, and wouldn’t you know, we sang it this morning. The service was nice, the sermon was very good, and I felt love in that place, yet somehow I feel like my Sunday is incomplete. I really, really missed being at St. Peter’s this morning. I missed partaking in the Eucharist. I missed the liturgy, the pipe organ, and even kneeling.

I am somewhat surprised to find that in a short time, less than two years, the Episcopal manner of worship has become so deeply rooted in my heart that to go anyplace else just doesn’t quite seem like “church”. I believe that God enjoys, appreciates, and blesses all true worship. I also think that the form the worship takes, means far less to God that the heart attitude of the worshippers. I have met many people over the years who think that the manner of worship in which they choose to participate is superior, or more holy, or more effective, or something, than the worship of others who may do it much differently. I admit, I even thought that at one point. I thank God that he corrected me, and then led me to a place where worship is very different from anything I had previously experienced. Not better, just different, and a better “fit” for me.

I look forward to Sunday next with great anticipation. When I walk through the red doors of St. Peter’s I know that I will feel the Lord’s embrace, and with a sigh of joyful relief I will sit down in a pew and thank God that I am home.