There are many times during the course of a few days when most of us use the word “hope.” It might be a conversation with a neighbor out by the mailbox;
The past several months have been very taxing and stressful for many folks. This year many of the traditional practices have been set aside.
One of the first things I was taught when learning to drive was that it was essential to be more cautious when driving at night. If you’ve counted enough birthdays you may remember when “quad headlights” became the standard on new cars – four headlights instead of the typical two. Of course, the idea was to have more light in order to drive more safely at night.
Over the past couple of days a friend from my high school years and I “bumped into each other” on social media. Brad and I had not been in contact since 1965. One of his first comments was “strange world we live in.” He gets no argument from me. Indeed, hardly a day passes without some item in the national news - or even local news - that makes a person almost throw up their hands in frustration and confusion
Here we are, back at the threshold of “that time of the year”. If you think about it, the clarion-call of the world really begins the climb to its crescendo. The world wants you - actually, it NEEDS you - to focus and worry about so much that is temporary and trivial.
" Psalm 85:6 Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? For a while now it has seemed to be increasingly easy to find issues over which there is a disagreement between folks. In fact, some days it almost feels as though we are inundated with contentious issues and with the ardent views of folks on one side or another of a given issue. Our focus, our mental and our emotional focus are being pulled and challenged.
![]() There’s a joke you may have heard. “How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer is “CHANGE?!?” Yesterday I was driving in an area of the community where a creek ran through, under the road. The banks were filled with trees, the ground covered with green growth. It was a slow traffic moment and I’m glad of that. For a short time it was an opportunity to look down the little stream. That’s when I saw the eagle. He was probably fishing. During the few moments I was able to watch he worked from one over-hanging limb to another, always looking down into the water.
OK … OK … not just “think about” but also feel.
For as long as I can remember I’ve always realized that winter here in the United States meant it was summer in Brazil or Argentina. Over the years I simply never bothered to apply that to the other seasons of the year; fall here is spring there, and so on. Big deal, right? Our backyard features a number of bird feeders. When there is time during a morning to sit with a cup of coffee, watching the birds swoop in and out, it’s both relaxing and entertaining. Since we’re coming to the close of summer there aren’t so many recently fledged young birds coming in and out of the yard. Earlier in the season it was often much easier to spot them.
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Pastor Bob LeFavi
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