Otterbein Parade Reflection

Who doesn’t like a parade?! Parades are fun for everyone whether you watch or participate! The Central District sponsored a Support Parade on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, for the Otterbein SeniorLife Community. Sadly, their residents and staff have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. The parade was – in real time – to show our appreciation toward the daily heroes who provide amazing care to the residents and to encourage those who have been isolated from family and friends.

Well over two dozen vehicles which included golf carts, muscle cars, SUVs, vans, jeeps, a church bus, and an old Model T honked, waved, and drove around Otterbein’s campus.  I share my appreciation for Bishop Trimble, Conference Superintendent Aleze Fulbright, and Chaplain Reverend Owen for their presence and leadership.

For those of us who participated it was a joyful thing to “do” as an expression of love and support. In addition, participants’ hearts were gratified to be together in the action of showering others with love.

For those who witnessed our parade and read our signs; their smiles and enthusiastic waves reflected the joy received. We heard shouts of “hello”, “thank you”, and “God bless you.”

My teenage daughter took the morning off from her online learning as a “field trip.” She confessed to me that meeting all of her mother’s co-workers was worth it so that she could honk and wave. However, it was my daughter’s reflection about the parade’s larger significance that followed me home.

Her final thought as we pulled out of Otterbein’s driveway was, “Momma, I don’t get it. We should do this {parade of support} all the time. Why does it take a stupid virus to get us to do this… thank the nurses and give a parade for the residents?! That is just so dumb.”

Oh, the mind of a teen! Yes, there has been so much this pandemic and its repercussions have taught us about being the Body of Christ in such a time as this. To my teen’s remark, just maybe our learnings from this experience invite us to practice crazy, fun appreciation in every season.

As we seek to be a healthy Body of Christ and plan for our re-engagement of in-person worship and ministries, I pray Hoosier United Methodists will focus on the essential purpose of what we are about – offering love, appreciation, thankfulness, silliness, hope, encouragement, wonder, value of others, and joy. Moreover, this parade reminded me that when the invitation to be Church is clear and purposeful (i.e. shower others with love), disciples show up! 

 

 

**this article was shared in our district newsletter... https://www.inumc.org/bishop/otterbein-support-parade-reflection/

COVID 19 World Prayer

 

God, our Great Physician-

bless the healing front lines of our global pandemic...
all those who work in medical and pharmaceutical care; all who care for elderly nursing homes/hospice/group homes/mental health facilities; all those who work and care for those in prison; we are grateful for their healing and caring gifts!

bless the leading front lines of our global pandemic...
elected officials and government agencies, universities, school districts, faith community leaders; business (small thru large) owners; we are grateful for their leadership in difficult moments.

bless our first-responding front lines of our global pandemic...
EMT's, law enforcement officers, and fire fighters; we are grateful for their willingness to serve and protect.

bless all of us on the front lines of our disrupted lives...
as every aspect of our lives is overturned by what we face.

YOUR generosity, YOUR hope, YOUR light, YOUR kindness is shown, seen, and demonstrated by so many already! We are grateful. We are thankful. We are joyous, even in these turbulent, demanding times, in WHO you ARE, Mighty God!

O God in Whom there is NO Darkness at ALL, grant us good humor; long standing patience and kindness; inner resolve and strength; generosity which begets generosity; and fresh opportunity to witness YOUR might in the face of fear/disruption/unknown/anxiety.

This is a precious moment in which we can HOLY PAUSE on all aspects of our lives and our life together. Our season of Lent just got more real, which also means Easter's hope is more real as well.

Let us not waste this ripe opportunity to dig deeper into our inner faith and our commitment to serve others.

This is YOUR moment O God to witness YOUR people...doing no harm, doing good, and staying in love with YOU!

Shine BRIGHT through us, we pray, as Jesus is - truly- the Light of the World. Amen.   

                                    By Rev. Michelle L. Knight 3/13/2020  

But IF Not Faith

 

Today I pray you…

feel appreciated and valued for being who you are and living your call; but if not may

you continue to be faithful to God.

have all the energy and enthusiasm needed for life and ministry; but if not may

you stay faithful.

And your family and friends are healthy and well, but if not may

you persist to be faithful.

hear kind, encouraging, and thankful words from others, but if not may

you persevere to be faithful.

have more days of joy and wonder than days of sorrow and despair, but if not may

you remain faithful to God.

 

May you have “but if not” faith from Daniel 3:13-18; as our God in Jesus is faithful to you. 

 

You are prayed UP,

 

Michelle

Now What Are We Gonna Do?

  Now what are we going to do?  Living amid COVID 19 pandemic shifted what normal looks everywhere including worship and even summer block parties. 

Now what are we going to do? Living amid social unrest elevated hurt, angry voices as many cry out against racial injustice within our nation. 

Now what are we going to do? To even ask this question counters the temptation to wait for the “next bad thing to happen”. 

First, I choose to pause mid-pandemic and give thanks for God’s faithfulness during this crisis. My gratitude abounds for faithful lay and pastor leaders who conquered huge adaptive challenges to continually comfort and lead their congregations through this time.  I am even grateful for blunders because those missteps deepened discipleship growth. 

Second, I choose to respond to racial injustice with a pivotal learning from my COVID 19 experience. While the faithful have been separated during our quarantine; my appreciation of how important all God’s children are to God and to the Beloved Community (which is Church) was amplified. Being present together matters.  A hurt on one part of the Body of Christ impacts us all especially as life here is practice to live eternally in heaven. 

So, what will I do with this learning? As I seek Jesus’s help to undo the damage which the sin of racism causes in me and others; I choose to intentionally invest in relationships, partnerships, and friendships with folk not like me.  Yes, I can learn from what I read, hear, or watch. Yes, I can unlearn behaviors as I journal, reflect, and pray about my blind spots and missteps. Relationships, as the Trinity models, are the best crucible classroom for repentance, forgiveness, grace, and reconciliation.  “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18).

Your path to answer the question might be different.  But, dearly beloved, let us together seek to the answer; now what are followers of Jesus going to do? 

**This article appeared in the Hendricks Co ICON: Brownsburg/Danville Edition August 7, 2020

Frightened Hope: Holy Week into Easter- Devotion #3 Pastors/Caregivers COVID 19

 

In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Luke 24:5

 

I was asked today by a colleague who prepares to preach an Easter message-from a distance- to her congregation... where and how I am seeing any positive opportunity in this new, strange reality. Here is my response...

Dear Pastor-Preacher-Meaning Maker,

I do not think I can yet tell what "seeds" God's Spirit is planting in me. The growth is too much in front of me. I only know how aware I am of my own limitations on everything about everything.

Inspiration is coming to me in very, very small kindnesses. Or in the transparency of folks to be honest in their self-expression or self-disclosure without putting anything more on someone else. Simple distractions. Stories of heroes. Teddy bears in windows. Baking a cake with my teen. Snuggle with my husband.

It is easy for me to be grateful and I can abide in that space... it is facing an unknown, invisible disease and the havoc it is wrecking on jobs, families, finances, and institutions that pulls me out of gratitude into scarcity about everything! That and the fact that all the HELPER type folks are exhausted and depleted and yet GO ON....and on and on.

Yes, there is positive happening within and without but also, I am gonna have to wait and see what opportunity this is. I have been through enough other difficulties and hardships to know and believe that truth to be true.

Now, today in the middle of Holy Week I remember that Easter is more than a day. It is a season until Ascension Sunday, then comes Pentecost. And then every Sunday is a "little" Easter. I have been trying my whole life of 48 years to figure out what Easter means and why it matters so much and how Easter makes a difference... so why stop now? Even with COVID 19 and it's stupid ripple impacts. I am gonna chase down Easter's meaning until my dying breath.

I am confidant about what I do not want the result of this experience to be- trauma or PTSD revisited. I would prefer to cope with a scar or wound that is in need of healing.

Not sure if I was close to answering your questions...

Much love- you are doing and being in Jesus' name- ALL THAT IS REQUIRED!

Michelle

 

 

Prayer-

God of Good Friday and God of Resurrection Sunday, meet me in my fear and trepidation.  Holy me close as I cling to you.  Amen. 

My Limitations Meet God's Strength- Devotion #2 for Health Care Workers COVID 19

 

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; God’s understanding is beyond measure”. Psalm 147:5

I know a variety of helpers: teachers, pastors, nurses, social workers, doctors, therapists, spiritual directors, rabbi’s, and imams; and I recognize a look in their eyes right now.  I see that same look in my bathroom mirror.  A helpless, inadequate, over whelmed, I-am-not-enough, exhausted and anxious look as we confront the extremity of our world’s problems and realities with COVID-19. 

Do you feel small in comparison to all that needs to be done?  I do. Do you feel as though you are not enough?  I do.  And it is overwhelming, isn’t it?! 

The illusion of my strength has been stripped away from me.  I am vulnerable not just to the harshness of a contagious disease, but also I am vulnerable to how this disease and its disruption impacts others in our world.  And I do not like that truth nor vulnerability.

And yet, the longer I sit with the awareness of my limitation and the more I read sacred scripture I understand more clearly the majesty and greatness of our God who loves us.  As I reflect on how large, immense, and powerful our God is I recognize that I was never supposed to be everything to all people nor have super powers to defeat all things. That is not who I am called to be.  I am not supposed to be and do BIG problems...our GOD handles those. I am best as I am while allowing GOD to be/do God’s thing!

Limitless and relentless ...power, strength, hope, love, and peace pour forth from our GOD. Maybe that is what the Apostle Paul was trying to explain in his second letter to the church in Corinth when he wrote, “But (Christ) he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”(2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

When I recognize my limitations and open myself for God to move with infinite love, power, and grace- then my weakness is fertile soil for God’s might to grow. 

 

Prayer

God of Power and Might, heaven and earth are full of our glory; where my limitations end, may that be the beginning of your unending grace to be more than sufficient for myself and those within my care. You are enough and all that I need. Thank you for providing.  Amen. 

 

Crisis Does Not Necessitate a Crisis of Faith- Devotion #1 for Health Care Workers COVID 19

  

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

 

          Yes, our world is living with a very critical, serious situation.  You, because you are on the front line of medical care, experience the immediate gravity of COVID-19 in ways others of us do not.  Indeed, we are in crisis, yet this does not have to be a crisis of our faith. 

Perhaps precisely when our faith is shaken during a crisis… it is simply being stirred in ways for which our faith can grow, deepen, or even strengthen. Now is a ripe moment for our faith: in one another, confidence in leadership, and confidence in our GOD; to transform for the better and best!  

Why am I so assured that a crisis serves as an opportunity rather than a faith catastrophe?  Because people of faith have lived with health crises similar to this during different eras. Maybe you and I have not lived through this, but the world has witnessed lots of diseases. Moreover, during previous centuries these believers grew into a mighty witness of compassion, tenderness, and hope. 

One of my favorite English speaking Christian mystics lived during the Black Plague which killed over 50 million people, over 60% of Europe. Julian of Norwich’s most famous line is often quoted by Christian pastors and leaders today: “…all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.”  During the 14^th century, Julian of Norwich reached deep within her faith to find and experience that God is like our clothing… as God “wraps and enfolds us for love, embraces us and shelters us, surrounds us for love.”

During this crisis may you reach out more to others and may this crisis compel you to deepen your faith so that you experience God’s relentless, limitless love. And then therefore, love others in a more loving, intimate way, than ever before.   

 

Prayer:

God of Relentless Love, meet me in this moment with my doubt, my struggles, and my uncertainty. Turn this crisis into an opportunity for you and I to deepen our rapport and trust. Thank you that you are my Rock and my Hope, now more than ever.  Amen. 

**I owe a special word of appreciation and thanks to my uncle, Father Michael Kallock, CSP, for sharing a devotion he wrote... he reminded me of the gift of Julian.  This blog entry and the next few which are numbered... I was asked to share with one of our local hospitals as their CEO requested local clergy write uplifting messages to their staff.  Honor to share in that way!