Skip to main content

Epworth Devotional 2021

Responses to Hope in the Wilderness 

This year’s devotional, Hope in the Wilderness, was put together with input from members of the congregation. Some submitted photos, pictures they drew, coloring pages, essays and poetry they or someone else wrote, and quotes. Then everyone was invited to join in conversations with friends and family or on Facebook. 


Below are some of the responses received on Epworth Facebook pages. Responses were sparse and far apart timewise. Clearly we missed the fellowship of in-person Lenten Study.


 

February 19

I decided to color today’s Lenten Devotion. I was praying for people I’ve had the privilege to teach, coach, and train. I recognized the things I learned from those same folks. Who are you nourishing? Or what are you nourishing that will grow and bloom?

 

March 5

Today’s entry has me meditating on change, constancy, time, and perspective.


What does this devotion raise in you?

  • My earliest childhood memories include our garden roses and the song of the robin. According to fossil evidence, there have been roses for 35 million years.
  • The glory of the Lord shall be revealed in the beauty roses, rocks, and the song of the robin. A task in my lifetime is protect nature from abuse and destruction.
  • She's sitting on a rock bringing to mind these lyrics: "On Christ the solid rock I stand / All other ground is sinking sand." I went in the opposite direction and focused on the sinking sand -- things that change and our own mutability.
  • I was also thinking about how sometimes a thing can seem to last forever (maybe like winter), but years of life inform us that winter gives way to spring every year.

 

March 16: Family

It has been a little while since I posted about the Lenten Booklet. I would LOVE to hear your answers to the second question from today: how is BEing Church like being family? GO

  • Common threads that bind.
  • According to a commercial on TV, family are the people you cook for. Can you say "potluck?"
  • Family are people you love through disappointments, disagreements, conflicts, and frustrations. We are called into God's unconditional love "to act with justice, to love tenderly, to serve one another."
  • Family are people who celebrate your joys with you, support you through loss, and respond "when you need somebody to lean on."

 


March 20

This was the coloring page the week Pastor Steve announced his new appointment and we learned about possible return to in-person worship.

 

Some Devotional responses, including coloring pages, were mailed in but the Echoes has not yet been at church to retrieve them. 

 

You can continue to post online or mail to the church and we will continue to share them in future Echoes.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pastor’s Column

  God’s timing, God’s plans Fellow Epworthians - As I sit here in my dad’s hospice room on the cusp of Holy Week, many things are rolling around in my head and in my heart. Obviously, I have a basic overlay of grief and sorrow. Infused into that are unsurprisingly disappointment, frustration, and perhaps some anger. Additionally, there are some warm feelings brought about by precious memories. Perhaps finally, for me, there is a both intellectual and spiritual curiosity – the desire to understand, especially to understand why. I’m sure you’ve all felt these very same feelings, perhaps recently. Over the last couple of weeks, my mother has regularly said an oft spoken idea, “God’s timing is perfect.” I’ve heard this same brought into conversation in challenging moments, especially when patience is required. Let’s think about God’s timing together. First, there is no Scripture that states unequivocally this understanding of God’s timing. Ecclesiastes 3:1 does say, “For everything there i
Post a Comment
Read more

Racial Justice Book Club

Circle of individual voices  on anti-racist journey The journey began with the first Zoom session on January 12 by meeting the facilitator, Crixell Shell, Assistant Executive Director of the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute, where she is a Peacebuilding Trainer and Coming to the Table Racial Talking Circle Facilitator.   Book clubbers also met others who joined the circle and discussed the touchstones that will guide discussion. Some circle members are from Epworth and others from the wider community with more joining the circle at later sessions.    As they introduced themselves to each other, circle members shared their personal intentions in joining this Book Club. They also shared their reflections on how the introduction to Ibram X. Kendi’s  How to be an Anti-racist   impacts the way they view our past racist thoughts, feelings and behaviors towards themselves and others.    The Book Club was established as a place for contributing individual voices and stories. “It wa
Post a Comment
Read more