Pastor’s Message – July 19, 2019

Traveling With One Another

This past Sunday before worship, I spoke to one of our members who had recently returned from travels. I knew about these travels because she’d posted photos on Instagram. I told her how much I had enjoyed seeing the sights they had seen (especially the food!). She had traveled places I’d never been, and the bright, beautiful photos transported me there.

I had a similar experience with such photographs a few months ago when visiting with a friend. She recalled seeing some photos that I posted over a year ago from a fall vacation I took to rural Connecticut. She told me something similar to what I had said on Sunday: though she had not been there in person, the photos took her to that place of peace, quiet, and rest.

We read a lot these days about how social media makes us more envious of each other. We covet our neighbor’s vacation as we scroll through photos of feet in the sand and videos on water crashing the shoreline. I understand that perspective but beg to differ as well. Sharing pieces of our lives through photographs can serve as invitations to celebrate God’s beauty in each other’s lives. A photograph shares a story, and we must not be jealous of someone else’s story. Instead, let us give thanks for the various ways in which God manifests his goodness in ALL our lives.

Here is an exercise in gratitude for us to try this week: If you are on social media, take some time to look at someone else’s vacation pictures. Perhaps make a comment on how grateful you are that they took that trip, and how wonderful it looked. If you are not on social media, take some time to look through some old photographs of a vacation you or a friend took. Say a prayer of thanksgiving for what God taught you in that time.

all good things to each of you,

Pastor Darian

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, July 21, 2019

Amos 8:1-12                                                                                                                                                                                                          Psalm 52                                                                                                                                                                                                              Colossians 1:15-28                                                                                                                                                                                               Luke 10:38-42

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